Light and Dark
by QueenStarrOfTheUniverse
Summary: Sam isn't your average human. Her boyfriend's a half dead superhero that fights ghosts from another dimension (with her help of course), her family is filthy rich and she couldn't care less, and she's the byproduct of chaos and order magic mingling. Wait... What? Danny will do anything to protect the people he loves, but even he can't save Sam from herself.
1. Chapter 1

**Bad idea considering how busy I am, but I want to see how this idea is received. This is my sorceress Sam story. First story in third person, so criticism is welcome.**

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Sam is instantly aware that the place she awakens is not familiar.

She's a light sleeper. Always has been. Even more so when Danny went through the Ghost Portal only to emerge with ghost powers and an alter ego. Whenever he visited her late at night, usually when she slept, Sam always awoke the instant he entered her room.

It feels like that now. A distinct _knowing_ that there's another person in the room, despite not seeing or hearing them.

Beyond that feeling, she feels the fabric beneath her fingers. Sam's bed is satin. The silky sheets and feather pillows are nothing like the rough material and cotton pillows she feels now. And the smell: not lavender like her detergent, but clinical, sharp.

Her senses leaping into overdrive is Sam's last resort to avoid panic. Though her eyes are closed, she can sense that the other presence knows she's awake, even if they are giving her the courtesy/illusion to pretend they don't. No matter their reason, Sam knows it won't last much longer. She has to open her eyes, has to confront whatever it is she's gotten herself into this time.

Strangely enough, Sam can't pinpoint what she did. Last she remembers, as hazy and clouded as it may be, is Danny flying her home, swinging her wildly through the air to illicit shrieks. She remembers him setting her down, winking as he said happy birthday, kissing her swiftly on the lips before disappearing back into the sky.

It's hazier after that. What did Sam do? Is this a ghostly plot against Danny? Where is she? Another thought strikes her. _Am I in the hospital?_

Panic spikes through her despite her desperate attempt to settle it. She's Sam Manson. Part of Team Phantom. She fights by a superhero's side to protect mankind. Panic at a time like this would betray all of that.

Her eyes flash open.

Whatever Sam expected, it wasn't this.

Stretched in front of her are four superheroes. They aren't ones she's seen before, but their affiliation is obvious. A white, bald teenage girl (white as in the actual color, not the race) stands directly in her line of vision, eyes soft and expression open. Beside her is a casually dressed, dark haired boy, his chest sporting the well-known mark of Superman. His expression is kind, much like the bald girl. Beside him is another young adult wearing orange and black gear with a mask shaped to be a tiger. Her expression is largely hidden by her mask, the only betraying feature a small frown. On the other side, a tall, dark-haired and way-too-hot-to-be-true man in black gear and a blue emblem stands with a neutral expression pressed into the lines of his face not covered by his black domino mask.

Sam's mouth parts, but when nothing comes out, she closes it again. She should talk first-set the conversation before they do it for her. _Can I help you? _would work, or _Is there nothing better on TV?_

The white bald chick directly in front of her snorts unexpectedly. Sam seizes up at the sudden sound, her eyes instantly searching the other girl. Her eyes had begun glowing green, like Phantom's, but without pupil or iris.

Sam's sluggish mind clicks rapidly, trying to draw the proper connection between the red X, glowing green eyes and blue cape. _Martian Manhunter…_

"Hey," interrupts the guy with the blue bird on his chest. His voice is kinder than expected, and though his eyes are hidden his face still manages to come off sympathetic, the neutral expression fading. "I'm Nightwing, and these are friends of mine. We're heroes. You're safe now."

You're safe now.

_Safe from what? I'd be a whole heck of a lot safer if this martian stopped READING-MY-MIND!_

The glowing eyes fade, revealing warm amber eyes. "My apologies," her light voice broaches, "I'm Miss Martian, and there is much we have to discuss, but let us first assure you we are not your enemy. We brought you here for your safety, but we had to be sure you would not compromise ours."

Sam's muscles tighten, though she doesn't clench her hands into fists. Where does she even begin? Where is she, exactly? Why was she saved by superheroes? What happened? What's happen_ing_?

"What's your name?" Nightwing tries again.

"What's _yours_?"

It comes out before Sam can catch up to herself, and she doesn't know whether it was justified or not. They _are_ superheroes, but does that mean she should blindly trust them? Does it even matter; do they already know her name and asked out of courtesy's sake? For better or for worse, Sam has chosen her attitude for the following conversation. Her pride would never allow her to backtrack or apologize.

Nightwing seems to accept this and steps back, giving her more room.

Nothing more is said, though their gazes all weigh heavily on her, waiting for her to start the conversation.

"What happened?" Sam asks after a prolonged silence.

"We were raiding a base we suspected of holding human captives," the Martian responds, "Though they were boom-tubed away before we could retrieve them. Security ran much higher than anticipated and several more members of our team were called in as reinforcements. The original plan had been to rescue the children, but because they were relocated, we would at least make sure the facility could not be used again.

"Despite activating the self-destruct failsafe, several lifeforms continued to stay. We forced them out, though they still fought to keep us from a specific lab. After overwhelming them we discovered inside that lab," she pauses, looking at Sam earnestly "was you. There wasn't much time, but Robin-our hacker-uncovered a little information about you. Your project name: _Chiaroscuro_. It didn't go into any detail beyond your health statistics and that they placed great hopes in your abilities."

"I don't have any abilities," Sam corrects sharply. Her mind was whirling with the information of a lab where she was kept and had zero recollection of, and her sickening fear of being unable to recall a memory so distinct regurgitated itself anger. "And no: this is not some desperate denial or secretly activated meta-gene. I don't even have it. I used the stupid goggles and didn't go subliminal or whatever that newscast said." Tucker had been so disappointed when the newscast exposing the goggles for what their true purpose was for had aired. Sam briefly ran through the memory as if to prove to herself she could still remember it.

"We know," Nightwing cuts in, voice maddeningly even. "We tested you for the metagene as soon as we brought you in. You don't have any meta-powers, but Doctor Fate-our expert on magic-confirmed you have an affinity for mystic powers."

"Magic?" Sam scoffs, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "I don't have any magic. Don't you think I'd've known if I had magic by now?"

They all exchange a look.

"Even if I did, why would you bring me _here_? I mean, a room this sophisticated must belong to the WatchTower!" Surely they wouldn't bring an unknown girl with unknown abilities into their most secure facility?

Another look exchanged.

"You've got to be kidding me. I could be evil!" The girl in front of the nervous apparent-magician tilts her head. Sam suddenly remembers her strong reaction to Miss Martian reading her mind, and finds herself deflating. "I'm not…" Sam protests weakly. "I don't have magic and I'm not evil."

"Look," Nightwing interrupts Sam's impending spiral into panic, "We aren't passing judgement; that's not what we do. We saw someone trapped by our enemies, so we freed you and brought you here to protect you and help you recuperate from whatever happened to you there. That's it."

"Then I can go home?" Sam asks in a soft voice, unnerved by how Nightwing's mask hides his eyes. She shifts her blankets between her hands for something to grasp, trying to look him right in the mask.

Nightwing hesitates.

"Are you saying-" Sam's voice raises an octave, and Nightwing shakes his head immediately.

"No. You're not a prisoner here. But we're not sure if it's even safe for you to go home. We don't know anything about you or why the light wanted you so badly."

The woman in the tiger get-up speaks for the first time. "Maybe we can bring someone here."

Miss Martian shoots her a sidelong glance and they appear to converse with their eyes before the bald woman looks Sam in the eyes and nods. "Your parents, or a sibling?" she suggests.

_My parents… _

The memory slams into Sam like a cement brick.

_Her mother's eyes are wide, staring at something behind Sam. Nervous, the new sixteen year old glances behind her, only to find one of the few plants her mother allowed in the kitchen withered in its pot. _

"_What?" Sam snaps, turning back to her mother, nervousness changing to a more familiar parental anger. "If you'd remembered to water it like I asked you to, it would've survived."_

_Pamela approaches the pot, her gloved hands gently brushing one of the dead leaves. Instead of a wilting leaf, still desperately hanging on to the last bit of water it had left, the leaf is as fragile as dust, crumbling under Pamela's light touch. "They were your plants, Samantha," her mother states bluntly, a small smile pulling at the side of her mouth._

_Sam frowns at her mother's obvious pleasure. "Is my dead plant really making you happy?"_

"_Yes." Pamela crosses the room and calls for her husband in an unconcerned voice. _

"_Pamela?" Her father enters the kitchen, casting Sam a brief glance. _

"_We were right."_

"_Right about what?" Sam demands, confusion causing her a headache. She wonders how bad the fallout would be if she ditched the birthday dinner her parents had forced her to consent to. "What is your problem?"_

_Her mother doesn't reply, busying herself in the drawers. Her father crosses the space between himself and his daughter to clasp a hug around her. "You were a difficult assignment," he mutters into her ear. "I'm glad it's over."_

"What_?" _

_Sam struggles in his grip, suffocated by his arms. Unfortunately, her distraction left a window of time open for Pamela to plunge a needle into the exposed skin of her daughter's throat. _

_A gasp leaves Sam's mouth, confusion and panic swirling in her head as she registers the pain in her neck. Betrayal pierces her heart as her muddled mind makes the distinct connection that what her parents had just done was _wrong_. But before she can utter a question or protest, her mind is swept out from underneath her and she tumbles into oblivion. _

"No!"

Sam's outburst startles the heroes, though their training barely shows it. Her breathing comes more rapidly, her hands beginning to shake on the blankets. "No, what?" Nightwing prompts gently.

"Not them! They-They d-did this!" Sam's hands climb to her throat, searching for the puncture mark that should be there. There isn't one. Had she imagined it? No, there was no way. It had to have healed. "How-How long was I gone?"

Looks are exchanged again, before Miss Martian broaches, "You've been out for a few days. But you were also in stasis, though we don't know for how long."

"The-What's the date?" Her hands continue to shake, and Miss Martian hesitates, glancing over at Nightwing for instruction. "The _date_!" Sam shrieks. Her head is beginning to pound with all the panic.

Nightwing puts his gloved hands over hers, forcing her to look him right in the mask. "I get it; things are crazy right now. But you need to _remain calm_. We can figure things out. All that matters is that you're safe now. Everything else can be dealt with."

Sam's hands stop shaking, but her panic continues to climb to new heights. Remarkably, Nightwing answers her query anyway, looking resigned to the fact that she was not going to calm down anytime soon. "June 29, 20XX."

The year didn't matter; it had been the same she remembered. But the month… Sam's birthday is May 4th, and that was the last day she'd seen…

The image of Phantom kissing her goodbye floods her mind's eye once more. _She_ will be fine, but what about _him_? Sam had been gone almost two months… He.. he would've gone crazy and since he obviously didn't find her… what had happened to… to him…?

Stasis still in her bloodstream, it was unlikely Sam would've been conscious more than a few hours before needing to sleep off the rest of the drugs circulating her system. With the added panic and terror, her energy ran thin far faster than expected.

"Maybe you should've held off on the date," Superboy mutters to Nightwing, who sighs and moves off the unconscious girl's hospital bed. "Did you get anything, M'gann?"

"Nothing on her captivity. She was too afraid."

"It's fine." Nightwing, still resigned, leads the group out of the infirmary. "We'll just question her when she calms down."

"I don't think she will," M'gann corrects him. "She wasn't afraid for herself. Before she kicked me out of her head, she was recounting what she last remembered. There's a boy she's worried about."

"We did offer to allow someone to be with her," Artemis muses, latching onto this detail. "If we bring him here, maybe she'll be a little more open."

"We don't know who she is," Nightwing argues. "We don't even know if she's dangerous."

"If I read her memory correctly," M'gann continues, as if the others hadn't spoken, "He's a meta. Or at least, someone who can fly."

"Even more reason," Artemis reaffirms. The scared girl's reaction struck a personal chord in her. She knew what it was like to be terrified and alone, needing someone to trust when everything else is so unfamiliar and uncertain.

Nightwing sighs once more, but doesn't disagree. "Fine. But we still don't know anything about her. How will we even find this guy?"

"The boy's name was Phantom, if that helps," M'gann offers. "White hair, green eyes. That's the clearest read I got from her."

Nightwing pauses. "I recognize that name." He goes over to the computer, pulling up the internet and typing in the name. Several sites pop up, all highlighting the Phantom of Amity Park, Illinois. Nightwing couldn't help but be excited at the prospect of finally reopening the Phantom case.

When the articles began popping up a little over a year ago, Batman had sent a small group to investigate. Nightwing had been among them. Unfortunately, in the day and a half they could spare to investigate, there was nothing but inconclusive data. Civilians had panicked twice over ghost attacks, but by the time the heroes arrived, there was nothing there. Nightwing was the only one not convinced that it was all superstition.

Nightwing feels a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth. "M'gann, call a team together."

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**Let me know what you guys think. Ideas, criticisms, comments, life stories... They're all welcome!**

**~Disclaimer Disclaimer~**


	2. Chapter 2

Red Robin-AKA Timothy "Tim" Drake-drops from the Javelin and lands silently on the building below. Halo and 13 drop down beside him, both glowing with their respective energy. Red beckons silently to the two girls before disappearing into the shadows around them. Or rather, Red disappears into the shadows while Halo and 13 follow behind him.

They move along the buildings over the silent city, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

_Besides a peacefully sleeping city_, Red Robin muses, sweeping his binoculars over the city. Set to infrared, they pick up several hot bodies inside buildings along with the other normal readings of a sleeping street. Finding nothing, he replaces the binoculars on his belt and motions to his companions.

The third Robin nearly jumps out of his skin when he turns forward to find the object of their search standing directly in his path. 13 gasps in surprise while Halo lets out a quiet "eep", both equally startled by the ghost's sudden appearance.

"Help you find something?" the floating boy asks, arms folded and lips turned into an irritated scowl.

"Found it." 13 laughs nervously.

Phantom's eyebrow arches over his glowing green eye. "Isn't it against the Superhero Code to trespass in another hero's city? You don't see me vacationing in Gotham."

"We're here for you," Red Robin states calmly, regaining his emotional equilibrium after the jumpscare. "I don't know how much you follow the media, but the light has-"

"Been targeting those with meta powers. I know. They came here looking for me, but I mixed them up so they thought Phantom was just a superstition. But I'm not going to go with you guys either. I might be a hero, but I'm not going to get wrapped up in this global fight and leave my city in the crosshairs. I believe you can find your own way back."

Phantom vanishes from sight. Halo makes a small noise at his sudden disappearance, but Red Robin is not so easily fooled. "We found your friend," he calls out, barely louder than before.

The silence seems to hold its breath, so he continues.

"We found her in an underground light facility during a raid. We didn't get a name, but she's about sixteen, with black hair, purple eyes?"

Phantom shimmers back into view, his expression warring pain against hope against suspicion. "You didn't get her name?"

"She didn't tell us."

Halo immediately jumps in, though Red Robin thought he was handling it just fine. "She's afraid but we thought if you were there she would be able to calm down and tell us about what happened!"

Phantom remains still, emotion still clashing in his expression. He opens his mouth several times but doesn't seem to be able to find any words. The heroes remain silent, though the girls look to Red Robin as Phantom's face wars with itself. Red shakes his head, eyes trained on the specter.

After a long moment, Phantom settles on a question and asks, "Would you recognize her if you saw a picture?"

"Yes," Red answers.

Phantom stares at him a moment longer before withdrawing a cell phone from somewhere in his belt. He manipulates the screen for a minute before turning it towards the other boy for confirmation.

The nature of the teen in the picture is vastly different from the exhausted, white-clad girl from the infirmary, but Red Robin immediately recognizes her. Her hair is shorter, hanging around her face in choppy waves. There's a small smile on her face that makes her violet eyes sparkle with mischief. Her attire is pseudo-goth: dark colors and bold styles but without the colored hair, pale makeup and pierced jewellery that usually accompany the clothes. It's clear the picture was unexpected, as she isn't looking into the camera and appears to be talking to someone else.

"That's her," the former Robin confirms, carefully watching the spirit's reaction. After Red Robin's confirmation, the phone is withdrawn and turned to face the other boy. The ghost looks over the picture, a great longing in his eyes. "We can take you to her," Red broaches after a small moment. The other boy's attention is immediately back on the masked hero.

Suspicion lines the hope in Phantom's face. "Is there a catch?"

"No."

The suspicion isn't eased. "No blindfold?"

"Yes, but that's not a catch. It's protecting the location of our secret base."

Phantom nods, almost to himself. "Can I leave?"

"Sure." Phantom searches the other's face. "You may be some kind of hero, and an unusual one at that, but you're not the focus here. This girl is."

This seems to placate the ghost, and he mulls over his choices. His stance relaxes and becomes almost docile, until a thought visibly occurs to him and his muscles tighten again. "Is _she_ allowed to leave?"

Red Robin expected this question. "She's allowed to," he answers evenly, his eyes searching the ghost meticulously. "But it's not the best option right now. Her escape is too fresh, her powers too unknown. Leaving the safety of our stronghold will leave her open to all kinds of threats." Phantom opens his mouth to protest, but Red Robin cuts him off. "We can continue to argue about this after we pool together our information. Let's not get worked up before we know what's going on."

Phantom analyzes the boy in front of him. Suspicion wavers in his expression, his lips turned down in a contemplative frown. He mulls over his choices. By the way his hands fidget in his folded arms and the slight bob affects his flight, Red Robin can tell he's anxious to see the girl, but the uncertainty holds him back. He's gauging his options. With great risk comes great reward, Red muses. Is it worth it to this apparition?

"No," Phantom allows slowly, as if the words are bitter in his mouth. "I don't think this makes enough sense. You randomly show up out of no-where, claiming to know a friend I publically have, just a week after some other guys come by looking for me? That's a little too coincidental. And Sam just told you to find me, I bet, before telling you her own name?"

The former Robin feels the shock affect his two female companions. They had remained largely out of the conversation, understanding the delicacy of the situation. "We're not lying!" 13 protests, holding out her hands placatingly.

"You have to believe us," Halo entreats, floating up in agitation. "Miss Martian, our telepath, she-"

"Stop," Red Robin commands. There's no excessive volume to his words, just a slight lilt of emphasis, demanding his companions to quiet. He instantly recognized what was happening. The way Phantom threw force into his words but then anxiously awaited their reactions, half hoping, half ready to defend himself. The way he angled toward them, determined. The way he said Sam instead of referring to her as his nameless friend. "We understand. We don't have what it takes to prove we have the best intentions. We'll contact you when we do."

With a single flick of his hand, he turns back. He walks several paces before using his line to switch buildings, all the while followed by his confused companions. He doesn't allow questions, knowing the ghost is very capable of invisibly trailing them. When he glances back, too curious to help himself, he finds their meeting spot empty.

By the time they reach their ship, idling in camouflage mode, Red Robin is beginning to feel a flicker of doubt. Had the ghost not been testing them, trying to see if they would attack or present too-good-to-be-true evidence? He was certain that was what Phantom was doing. Brow furrowed, he boarded the ship, followed by his companions. The instinct still hovers, urging him to follow through on his hunch.

"That was a bust," 13 mutters, flopping down on her seat as the ship begins takeoff. "I was so ready to ask that guy all about ghosts." Halo looks at her curiously, but 13 misinterprets it as a challenge. "And help that girl! I mean, I wanted to complete the mission too! I mean, that was my main goal, completing the mission."

Halo's curiosity turns confused. "Was the mission not retrieving that girl's friend so she might calm down?" she asks, looking to Red Robin.

"That was the mission," he confirms, busying himself at the consol. Nearing the Zeta Beam a couple towns over, he decides to test his hunch. "You still need a blindfold." He holds one out, not taking his eyes off the screen.

A moment of silence, filled with confusion from the two girls and apprehension from the young detective. It drags on for almost too long until the blindfold is tugged from his grip, the culprit fading into visibility with an almost petulant frown. "I thought I was being smart with that," he mutters, glowering briefly before his eyes disappear behind the black fabric.

"Wait…" 13 begins, looking between the two. "Did I miss something?"

Red Robin responds to Phantom as if 13 hadn't spoken. "That was a smart move. I'm just a little bit harder to fool than most."

Halo gets over her shock quickly, clapping her hands together and smiling. "You fooled me!"

Phantom angles himself slightly towards her, a flicker of a smile crossing over his face. "I wasn't really trying to _fool_ you guys… I was just...worried." His hands fidget in apprehension. There are a few times he'll reach up to touch the blindfold, almost like he'd forgotten it was there and was readying to take it off.

"Does this mean I _can_ ask you about ghosts?" 13 wonders, her usually carefree gaze analyzing the way Phantom moves. Red Robin inwardly grins at her eagerness, but stoically reminds her that it's not the time. While she sits back, conceding, her gaze never leaves the unaware spirit floating in front of her.

"Landing," Red Robin announces moments later, mostly for their sightless companion. The borrowed Javelin touches down in a League hangar, located in a remote farmland outside Detroit city limits. As soon as they clear the entrance, the ramp ascends, leaving the surrounding area looking completely normal.

Red Robin signals for 13 to take Phantom's elbow and guide him out of the ship so he can calibrate the Zeta tube to receive a guest. He gestures for 13 to place Phantom in front of the tube. "Our tech is going to scan you; don't move."

Phantom's body goes rigid for a minute, whether in protest or preperation Red Robin couldn't tell. He glances at Halo, and she immediately steps in to placate the ghost. "It only tickles for a second," she tells him. "It's so we can get to the base!"

_And to document your physiology_, Red Robin thinks to himself with an inward grimace. A little dirty, in his opinion, though it's necessary. Halo could boomtube them anywhere-that's why she was put on this retrieval team. However, Phantom is still too unknown a factor and could pose a danger. By scanning him, he can check for unwanted surveillance or any other nasty surprises. Besides, with the blindfold, Phantom would never find out.

The data that pops up reveals nothing.

Literally nothing.

The only thing it recognizes is a tangible cold spot in the shape of a human. It recognizes the facial structure, but whatever Phantom's made of… It's not in the system. He might as well be a projection of tangible light.

Strange-_incredibly, impossibly_ strange-but not suspicious. Red Robin weighs the threats and decides it's safe for Phantom to enter. 13 leads him in with her, and in a flash of light they've both disappeared. Halo and Red Robin follow, the former shutting the power off in the facility as they leave.

Red Robin emerges to the sight of a very pale Phantom sprawled on the ground, one hand on his forehead and the other on his chest. 13 is crouched over him, a deep frown etched on her face. "What happened?" Red Robin hears himself ask, though his mind is already analyzing the situation.

13 glances up. "He went through and looked like he was going to pass out. I don't think ghosts like the Zeta beam much."

Red Robin doesn't get any new information from her explanation. "Phantom?"

"O-one…" He inhales again (do ghosts even need to breathe? Red Robin wonders) and tugs at the blindfold, not taking it off but making it obvious his growing disdain for it. He abandons his efforts and picks himself up off the ground, standing instead of returning to his natural state of flight. "I'm good now, I think-"

"What happened?" Red Robin stresses, growing exasperated. He would've removed the blindfold-they zetaed right by the medbay to avoid showing the ghost where their base is stationed-but decided he would once Phantom answered his question.

"It just-tore me apart and I-I was everywhere at once."

"That's what a Zeta portal does. It breaks your atoms down into light for transfer."

Phantom's frown deepens at the other hero's dismissive tone. "I control my form! If I'm broken down into light, then my consciousness is all over the place, and I was trying to draw myself back together, but it was so dizzy and I felt sick. I don't-It just wasn't fun, okay?"

Red Robin relents. "We'll arrange another way back for you."

He moves forward to take off the blindfold, but before he reaches the white-haired hero, an ear-splitting screech echoes from the nearby medbay: "NO! GET THESE CLOTHES _OFF_ ME!"

Phantom's body goes rigid again, every muscle seizing as recognition strikes his face. Without moving his legs, he shoots forward, leaving his blindfold to flutter to the ground, still tied. "Sam!" he shouts, moving towards where he heard the scream. His entire form goes through the wall, not even bothering to find a door.

Red Robin moves after him, blindfold and companions forgotten. The medbay and the heroes from the team are completely forgotten by the ghost as he takes in the terrified, white-clad girl half-off the bed.

"Sam," he mutters again, and her eyes turn to him, going wide in surprise. In an instant, Phantom has reached her and pulled her into an embrace.

Red Robin answers Nightwing's high-browed smirk. "Got him."

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**In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I've decided to be generous. This chapter was partially done, so I finished it up. Let me know of any mistakes or anything. Also, in case y'all are new to my updating schedule: I do not have a set schedule. I usually post once or twice a week, depending on how busy I am. This fic might be a bit more spread out, but I doubt it'll be by much. Anyway, review! I love them *heart emoji***

**Happy Thanksgiving!**


	3. Chapter 3

Danny feels a sob of relief build in his throat at the warm body bundled in his arms. She's fine, _fine_… After two months of terror, of feeling so _awful_, walking around aimlessly, snapping at people, relentless searching… She's right here! Perfectly fine, not an injury on her, surrounded by superheroes… and struggling to get out of his tight embrace.

Another thought flits through Danny's mind, filling him with a new fear so irrational he pushes her back, searching her amethyst eyes. "Do you know who I am?" Could this be what happened back in freshman year, when Desiree erased Danny's memories at Sam's ill-worded wish? Had Sam forgotten him?

"Of course, you idiot," she scoffs, pushing his hands off her shoulders. "I just needed to breathe."

Danny laughs, more out of joy at Sam being _here_, right in front of him, than out of humor. "Humans," he adds, too much lightness in his voice to sound insulting.

"Uh-huh." Unimpressed, Sam rolls her eyes, but her heart isn't in it. Danny recognizes the panic in her eyes and turns to the heroes, subtly placing himself between them. He quickly documents who is in the room with him: the three who brought him here, a woman in black armor, a bald chick with skin as white as his hair, and a guy in a black suit with a blue emblem. The latter, Nightwing-if Danny remembers correctly-steps forward, his hands raised in a small gesture of peace.

"I'm glad we were able to find you," Nightwing begins, smiling slightly. "I hope this means everyone can calm down so we can swap stories."

"Why don't you start?" Danny replies, gesturing for Nightwing to take the floor.

"He already has," Sam cuts in, saving Nightwing from Danny's slightly-aggressive demand. She relays what they told her: invading a Light base, finding her, her experiment name, and what happened during the brief time she was conscious in the WatchTower.

"Wait, we're at the WatchTower?" Danny glances over at the strangely dressed Robin for confirmation. He just inclines his head, intending the slight movement to be his response. "Why'd you blindfold me for so long, then? That was _beyond_ paranoid." He rolls his eyes for emphasis.

Nightwing clears his throat. "We've… had a lot of break-ins. It's best to be cautious."

When Danny doesn't accept this as a reasonable explanation, the first hint of a smile ghosts across Sam's face. "Relax, Phantom, and tell me what happened when I disappeared."

Phantom's suspicious glaring at Red Robin quickly deflates, an old exhaustion settling over his features. In an instant the lively-if suspicious and a little jumpy-ghost is gone, leaving an apparition that looks far older than his youthful appearance. "Well, I swung by in the morning, because we were going to go up to the Tul-"

"I remember," Sam interrupts, a touch of pink dusting her cheeks. "Go on."

Danny barely pauses. If Sam didn't want the heroes thinking of her as someone who enjoyed things like Tulip Festivals, it was just fine with him. "But when I went into your house, it was empty." Sam looks to Danny, anticipating his next words. "Everything was gone. The only thing I found was your secret stash of stuff under the floorboards in your room."

"My parents?"

Danny pauses, detecting a note of barely concealed hostility in Sam's tone. He searches her face, finding hints of barely controlled anger in her tight-pressed lips and narrowed eyes. "Uh, gone?" Sam's jaw moves, gritting her teeth against each other. Danny glances between her and the heroes, feeling out of the loop. "Wait, okay, what did I miss?"

"Just…" Sam forces her eyes to relax and her hands to unclench. She folds her arms, stone-faced. "Just keep going."

Danny does so, even though his instinct is to press the matter. "I thought maybe your parents moved to get away from Amity Park, so I asked Tucker to do some research." Danny doesn't elaborate on Tucker, though he's sure the heroes have filed away this information for further discussion later. "We couldn't find anything. It was like you guys didn't exist anymore. We found your grandma and the other Mansons, but there was no record of there ever being an heir! No Pamela, no Jeremy, no Sam…" Danny pauses again, watching the heroes visibly file away information.

"Go on," Sam prompts, her voice urgent and patient at the same time.

"At this point I was sure it was some ghostly plot. While Jazz and Tuck looked into things in Amity, I went into the Ghost Zone to find who did it." Danny holds up his hand, ticking off fingers as he goes. "I went to Desiree, Walker, Dora, Ghostwriter… Even Technus! But none of them ended up knowing where you were. I went to Plasmius…" Danny swallows, not wanting to revisit _that _encounter again. "No one was taking credit. So I went to the Far Frozen and got the Infa-map, but even it didn't know where you were. I ended up in so many random places… It was like the thing was short-circuiting. After that I got desperate and went to Clockwork, but he only said, 'In time, light will reveal the truth' and-Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

Danny shoves his palms into his eyes. "He freaking _told_ me," he groans.

"Even if you had discovered she was with the Light," Danny hears a feminine voice state evenly, "You would've had to search hundreds of facilities, most of them off the radar. The facility where we found your friend was accidentally discovered hours before the raid."

Danny slowly uncovers his eyes, frown heavy and frustration clear. "I should've found you, Sam," he mutters.

"It's okay, Phantom," Sam forces, grabbing his elbow. "I didn't even realize I was gone. It felt like a night. Honestly, I'm more concerned for you."

"Don't worry about me," Danny responds immediately, disregarding the the last two months completely.

Sam looks ready to argue, but Nightwing interrupts. "Continue your story."

Danny wrests his arm from Sam, all too quick to move past the topic of himself. "Well, after that I returned to Amity. My-Jazz and Tucker hadn't found anything and we were back at square one. We focused on finding Ida Manson, but the trail ended because she went missing the same time you did. Two weeks ago Amity was attacked by another ghost trying his hand at world domination, which wrecked the east side of town. I did my best to both look for you and help reconstruct but I honestly didn't know how else I would find you. The Light came into town a few days later and I had to keep a low profile. They tried using Fenton tech but, you know-" Danny shrugs, a small smirk pulling at his mouth. "The Fenton kids really love sabotage."

Danny is pleased when another smile lightens Sam's face, even if it is brief. "They left only a few days ago, and nothing else really happened until today."

"The members of the Light," Nightwing begins, cutting off whatever Sam was going to say. "How did you know it was them?"

"Well, Tucker and Danny, the Fenton kid-" Danny realized that he had just revealed his name and paused briefly. He hadn't wanted to bring up his human identity, but avoiding the topic would just seem suspicious. Whatever; did it really matter? It's not like they'll immediately piece together his identity, and he won't be around long enough for them to figure it out. Danny continues, "were asked about me by two guys. They didn't really seek them out, but Danny's the son of the town ghosthunters, so they might've thought he knew something. He did, of course, but played the skeptic and told them that I was a myth and his parents were crazy."

Danny pauses again. He hadn't liked disowning his parents like that, but it paid off in the long run. He couldn't be sure, but the Light had seemed really interested in the Fenton's technology. With his word, and his parents' erratic behavior, the Light had only tested the tech, found it dysfunctional, and left his family alone. Danny noticed he'd been quiet and quickly continued.

"That was nice of him. Anyway, I followed them around after they visited the Fentons and messed with the tech even more. A couple ghost attacks happened that I cleaned up pretty quickly, so when they arrived everyone was screaming but there were no ghosts. They wrapped it up after that and left."

"Again," Nightwing prompts, sounding slightly bemused, "how did you know it was them?"

Danny, upon realizing he had never answered Nightwing's question in the first place, rubbed his neck and tried not to blush in embarrassment. The look on Sam's face told him he'd failed. "Uhh- Like I said, I was following them around. One of them, a taller dude with blonde hair, said he didn't find anything and that the Fenton tech was useless, and then he said the Light was wrong, then backtracked…" Danny shrugs. "Anyway, yeah, that's how I knew. But they were leaving at that point, so I didn't really do anything about it."

"Blond guy?" Danny glances over to the girl decked out in black armor and a tiger mask. She had yet to add anything, but was now stepping forward. She lifts her wrist and pulls up a holographic image of the man Danny remembered. "Is this him?"

"Uh, yeah."

The girl's face hardens and she withdraws the image. "Awesome," she mutters.

Nightwing glances at her before returning his attention to Danny. "And the other guy?"

"Uh… Black, bald, suit?"

The tiger woman and Nightwing exchange questioning glances. Nightwing offers his own holographic image from his watch. "Is this the guy?"

Danny examines the dark-skinned man without recognition. "Nope."

Nightwing lowers his arm, cutting off the image. "Did you get a name from either of them?"

"Um…" Danny struggles to remember. "The blonde guy was… John… Ta- Tr- Tarleign?" It had a T, he remembered that. The guy had introduced himself very briefly. He remembered the other guy's name, though. "The other one was Mason Kipowski. He said to call him K." Danny waves his hand in a dismissive manner. "Don't count on that actually being his last name, though. I just remember it being very complicated with a 'w' and a 'ski'."

"I doubt they were their real names." Nightwing says it more for Danny and Sam than for the rest of the heroes. "Anyway, 'K' was probably just a low-level companion for Sportsmaster who was only there to keep him an eye on him."

The tiger woman scoffs.

"Anyway, Sam," Danny interrupts, hoping to seize the chance to hear Sam's side of the story. "What do _you _remember?"

Sam shrugs. "I was fighting with my parents, and then my mom stuck a needle in my neck and drugged me. Then I woke up here."

Danny's eyes narrow. "It was your parents?"

Sam shrugs, feigning indifference. No one in the room buys it. "Yeah."

"Can you give us more detail?" Nightwing prods, voice much softer than before. "Everything that you remember."

"Why do you want to know?" Sam counters, stepping around Danny to face Nightwing fully. "Why does it matter so much?"

"This is a mystery," he answers easily. "Everything is a question right now. Why does the Light want you? For how long? Who are you, really? Why does Doctor Fate sense mystic energy from you? Why did we find you dressed in a standard pod jumpsuit except for the bracelets on your wrist?"

Both Danny and Sam's attention turn to her bracelets. It had been a birthday gift from Danny. He'd made them himself, out of ice and ectoplasm. They took hours to craft and days to perfect, as he needed to balance the temperature and structure to stay together like ectoplasm but clear like ice. The designs were something that he had added because they were what popped into his head when thinking of her. Overall, he had been incredibly pleased by how they turned out and that Sam had loved them and immediately put them on.

"It's probably because they couldn't take them off," Sam comments off-handedly, self-consciously tracing one of the designs on the left bracelet. "They were phased on."

Danny rubs his neck again, chuckling. "They came out that way." Noticing the questioning looks from the heroes, he supplies, "I made them for her."

"The point is," Nightwing stresses, "in investigations, every detail matters. It could be the smallest thing that solves the case."

"Fine." Sam drops her hands, letting them fall at her sides. "It was my birthday. I'd spent most of the day with Phantom and some of our friends. We saw a movie, went to the arcade, and then to our favorite restaurant for milkshakes. My parents wanted a birthday dinner without my friends, so I went home around five to get ready. If it matters, they wanted me back at four-thirty. Anyway, I got changed into something more formal and met my mom down in the kitchen. We immediately started fighting about what I was wearing. She wanted pink, I wanted black. Then I noticed she was looking at something behind me and saw one of my plants had died.

"My mom seemed really interested in that and called my dad down. He hugged me, but honestly it was more holding me in place, and told me I was a difficult assignment he wouldn't miss. Then my mom stabbed me with a needle and that's the last thing I remember."

"What do you mean by your mom being interested in your dead plant?" Red Robin speaks up, drawing Sam's attention.

"It was dead," she restated bluntly. "My mom looked at it, touched it, then called my dad down."

Nightwing picks up, asking for more detail about her day and the week leading up to it, trying to find a sort of trigger for her parents. He asks Sam to contrast her parents and their rules against some of her other friends, trying to find specific differences that might suggest there was more to her parents than a simple betrayal.

Danny watches Red Robin, who is focused on his holoscreen. He can't see what's on it from his angle, but the quick scrolling of the page suggests Red is searching for something rather than reading.

Noticing Danny's eyes on him, Red Robin pauses in his search and looks up. Danny quickly returns his attention to Sam, who's beginning to get frustrated at the questioning. It's a sensitive topic to begin with, but the implications of Nightwing's questions further irritate Sam.

"How frequently do they express love?" Nightwing's question is blunt, but he says it with a kind inflection. Still, Sam's muscles further clench, and she opens her mouth to bite back a response.

Danny recognizes the effect the questioning is having on Sam and quickly comes to her aid, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. She casts a furious glance at him. He tilts his head, silently asking her permission. She understands and relents, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Danny turns to address Nightwing. "The Mansons treat Sam mostly like an accessory. They try to control everything in her life: the clothes she wears, the music she listens to, the people she hangs out with. But whenever she gets hurt or sick or something, they go insane and order all these doctors and stuff. Beyond that…"

Danny looks to Sam. She has her eyes closed. When a silence descends, she opens them, glaring at the heroes. "Yeah, that's about right. Except it's all past tense." Sam turns slightly towards Danny but thinks better of it, channeling her emotions into fighting the hero before her instead. "Anything else, Nightwing?"

She means it as a challenge. He immediately backs down, slightly raising his hands in a sign of peace. "I'm sorry, Sam. It isn't my intention to interrogate you."

"That is how he sounds, though," interjects the bald chick, a small smile on her face as she casts a sidelong glance at the other hero. She'd been silent the entire conversation. Danny reassesses her, trying to figure out why she's here if she's only now starting to speak. He notices that Sam is eyeing her warily and decides to keep her on his radar.

"But are we done?" Sam stresses. Danny notices that she's starting to pull at her jumpsuit. It's one of her anxious ticks, and Danny immediately picks up on her meaning.

"When you feel more up to it, Doctor Fate was wondering if he could get another read on you," the tiger woman addresses Sam. "But for now, why don't we get you a change of clothes and some food and anything else you might need?"

Danny notices that this woman is the only one that doesn't set Sam on edge. She relaxes slightly at the prospect and nods, if a little reluctantly. When the woman takes another step forward, Sam's eyes flick to Danny. "He can stay, right?"

"Yeah, sure," Nightwing responds, as if the question had been directed at him and it was obvious. Immediately after speaking, he notices the question wasn't for him and coughs a little awkwardly. "Sorry. We'll clear out. Red, a word?"

The rest of the heroes-excluding the tiger woman-filter out, the two bats walking side by side. "Sorry about them," tiger woman apologizes, though there is nothing but fondness in her tone. "I wish I could say they were all here for important reasons, but it was mostly curiosity."

"Because I'm 'mystic'?" Sam mocks.

"Well…" The older woman looks to Danny. "It's not every day you have a _ghost_ in the WatchTower." She turns away from the two, busying herself with a tablet embedded into a nearby wall.

Sam looks at Danny, her mocking expression turning into a smirk at Danny's expense. "Yeah…" Sam taunts, her eyes issuing a challenge. "Everything's always about you."

Danny, even knowing Sam is trying to bait him, splutters and waves his hands in front of him. "I don't know what's _up_ with that!" he defends, gesturing helplessly at himself. "There _are_ other ghosts! I mean, I know I make _most _of them stay in the Ghost Zone and a lot of them are evil and stuff, but I'm not the only one!"

"You _make _most of them stay in the Ghost Zone?" the woman clarifies, her head tilted.

Danny's indignation returns to awkwardness at being addressed directly again. "Well, I put them back when they try to destroy the city and stuff… They do that a lot."

"So you're a hero, like the superstition says?"

Danny rubs his neck, trying to avoid the attention. Scrutiny by heroes is the last thing he needs right now. "Yeah, kinda, I guess. I have help." He gestures weakly to Sam, who rolls her eyes at his modesty.

"How long have you been doing this?"

"Since I died."

Danny keeps it at that, watching the other woman's face intently for signs that she doesn't believe him. She takes it for a challenge and drops the topic, turning back to the wall and opening a glass panel. She withdraws a stack of black clothing, a pair of black slip-on shoes sitting on the top of the pile.

Sam immediately accepts the gift and, at the tiger woman's instructions, goes into a nearby bathroom to change.

"How'd you know she's want black clothes?" Danny wonders idley, half curious and half hoping to divert the other woman's attention away from him.

"In her story she said she was wearing a black dress," she responds shortly. "Can I ask you some questions about her?"

Danny glances back at the bathroom where Sam had gone, internally sighing at her for leaving him alone.

The woman catches this. "Nervous?" Her voice is light, almost teasing, but the implementation of her words suggest Danny has something to hide. He internally sighs again, returning his gaze to her reluctantly.

"I'm always nervous," he intones. "I don't have the best track record with anyone, really. Excluding Sam and Tucker, all my friends were enemies at some point." Danny repositions in the air, crossing his legs and bringing his head eye-level to the other hero. "I'll answer your questions if you really want me to, but I'd like to be able to decline a question without it getting labeled as 'hiding something'." He emphasizes with mimed quotation marks.

"I won't make you answer anything I wouldn't answer myself," she vows, her hand going to her hip and her lips turning up in an almost pleasant smile. "How long have you known Sam?"

Danny thinks back. As long as he can remember, so probably as long as Sam can remember, too. He decides to focus on Sam to keep an aura of mystery. "All her life."

"How long have you been a hero?"

Danny grins. This one's easy. "I started almost immediately after I died."

"Did Sam know what you were for the entire time she's known you?"

"Yeah." She was there, after all.

"Why have you only recently shown yourself? There's no mention of you until a year ago."

"I got caught on camera." Danny shrugs. "Before that, only a few people had seen me."

"But why _now_?" she stresses, probably trying to get an actual time period. Danny realizes she's trying to determine how old he is and how long he's been operating.

"The Ghost Portal the Fentons were working on turned on. It's basically a gateway between the worlds and the ghosts have unlimited access through it. Before, they could only slip through when natural portals popped up, and those are incredibly random and inconsistent. One can stay open an hour or only a few seconds. It can lead to Earth or the middle of the Andromeda Galaxy. You could end up in the 1850s or six hundred years in the future."

"Are they all violent?"

Danny eyes her to gauge her reaction. "No. All of them are passionate, and maybe a little obsessive, but not all are violent."

"What-"

She pauses when Sam exits the bathroom, looking far more comfortable in the dark clothing. Danny immediately floats over to her, both eager to escape the questioning and genuinely craving Sam's presence. Now that they're mostly alone, he finds himself fighting the urge to mess with her hair, and the way Sam swats him away from her head shows that she can tell.

"Would you like some food?" the tiger lady asks, previous questioning by all appearances forgotten. "We can head down to the cafeteria. They usually have themes, and I think today is Italian Tuesday, but there's also-"

"No thank you," Sam interrupts. "I'm not hungry."

Danny and the other hero don't look convinced but Sam holds her ground.

"Can we just… do the thing with Doctor Fate?"

The tiger lady (Danny really wants to ask for her name but the conversation's gone on too long and now it would just be awkward so he stays silent) searches Sam's face and for some reason, looks up to Danny. He shrugs.

"Okay," she agrees at last. "Let me get him in here. Is it okay if Nightwing and Zatanna come too?"

Sam shrugs, the picture of indifference, but Danny knows better.

"Maybe-"

"No, Phantom," Sam interrupts, sending him a look, "It's fine, really."

The other woman nods, typing something on her wristwatch. "They're on their way."

"Did everyone graduate?" Sam asks, and Danny silently thanks her for choosing the topic instead of the hero.

"Yeah." Although schoolwork had been the last thing on his mind, his grades had been just high enough to tough it out for the last two weeks of school. It helped that Tucker forged some of his assignments while Danny was away. "Jazz has been scouting out Harvard. I think she's made her final decision to go there."

Sam smiles and it finally reaches her eyes. "That's great for her." Then her face falls again. "Did I graduate?"

Danny looks away. "No. We couldn't find your transcript in the database. It was wiped with everything else."

Disappointment briefly flits across her features, but she forces a smile. "No more high school? I can get behind that."

Danny returns a weak smile.

The door is suddenly open, a large man with a gold helmet and blue and gold suit sweeping into the room. Following behind him are Nightwing and a woman dressed in a black and white suit that Danny recognizes as the magician Zatanna. Doctor Fate, with a sweep of his gold cape, comes to a stop in front of Sam. "This is her?" he addresses Nightwing.

"Yes, this is _she_," Sam bites, immediately slipping into defense mode. Danny, who had felt a buzz from his phone and was discreetly checking it, slips the phone back into his belt and comes to float directly behind her for support.

Nightwing enters the circle, positioning himself between Doctor Fate and Sam. "Before we begin, Sam, do you feel better?"

It was an obvious attempt to appease Sam's hostility, but it worked. She didn't have it in her to snap at someone asking about her well-being. "Yeah. Thanks."

Danny feels his phone buzz again, but he ignores it.

"Did you get anything to eat?"

"No. Maybe later."

His phone buzzes again, this time as a call. Nightwing turns his attention to him, cocking his head. "Are you going to get that?"

"Um… no…" It buzzes again, causing Danny to wince.

"So it isn't important?" Nightwing asks.

Sam sighs. "No, it is. Otherwise you would've turned your phone off, right?" She turns to him and glares. "Check it. Right now."

Danny laughs sheepishly, intensely aware of all the attention he's getting from the rest of the heroes. He flicks the power button, eyes quickly scanning the texts from Tucker.

_where ru?_

_are u seeing this?_

_dude I don't know where the f u are but get here now_

_HOW R U MISSING THIS? Some new ghost is WRECKING the town!_

Danny's eyes flick up to Sam, apologetic and angry and frustrated and determined all at once. "That bad?" Sam jokes weakly. "Then I guess you better be going."

"I'll be right back," Danny stresses. "Right back." He looks to Nightwing. "Can I just go out the same way I came in?"

Nightwing shakes his head, withdrawing a small box. "Take a boomtube." Nightwing manipulates the box and within seconds calls up a swirling yellow portal.

For reasons he wouldn't understand until he got to know Nightwing better, the masked hero tosses the priceless technology to the ghost. "MotherBox will bring you back. Be careful with her."

"Wait," Sam says suddenly, moving as if to follow him. "Can you get my stuff? Any of it you have?"

Danny's determined expression softens slightly and he nods. He turns and shoots into the portal, both collapsing in on themselves and disappearing into the air.

Sam, now alone with four heroes she barely knows, sits cross-legged onto her bed. "Shall we get started?"

* * *

**Sorry that took so long. I promise I worked on it a little every day, but man the weeks before winter break are busy. I'm actually typing this A/N in the couple minutes I have between breakfast and school, but I wanted to get it out as soon as possible.**

**Let me know what you guys think! (Again, first fic in third person, so criticism is welcome ;))**

**Thanks!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Are you sure you don't want to wait until he gets back?"

Sam looks to Tigress with resolve, ignoring the sympathetic look in the older woman's eyes.

"I will not wait," Doctor Fate says brusquely. Sam decides he's pretty much a robot because he barely moves, even when he speaks. The only thing animated is his cape, which billows softly as if there's an omnipresent breeze.

"Doctor Fate," Zatanna entreats, stepping forward as if to stop him should he try to leave.

Sam interrupts. "Yeah, I'm sure." She turns her attention to Doctor Fate. "Do the reading-assessing-thing."

He makes a disgruntled noise and floats closer. Sam swallows her apprehension, fighting the urge to squeeze her eyes shut and wish herself away. Doctor Fate's eyes begin to glow a bright white light and Sam can no longer repress the urge to shut her eyes.

For a moment, there's nothing. Sam forces herself to breathe normally as the silence drags. When she does begin to feel something, it's a gentle, exploratory prodding deep inside her, almost like an inhale of too much air.

Slowly, the pressure begins to burn and Sam struggles to take a full breath. Her ears start to ring as the burning gradually becomes more painful and all other sensations fade away…

...

Faint, distant ringing.

"Sam?"

It feels like her lungs are going to explode. Is she underwater? Why is everything so dark?

"Sam!"

Is someone trying to talk to her?

"Take a breath, Sam!"

How is Sam supposed to do that if there's no air? Did they even think of that?

"Take a-"

"Excuse me, Tigress." The voice is far more gentle than the commanding, brusque voice. Sam struggles to make the connection between the swimming vision of the figure in front of her and the kind inflection of a young man.

All at once, breath rushes into her lungs, her vision explodes in light, and feeling returns to her limbs. With an explosive inhale, Sam is suddenly back in the present, laying flat on her back and gasping air. A dull, throbbing pain originates from her chest but Sam ignores it, far more interested in oxygen.

Sam stares at the ceiling until her gasping evens out, air whooshing in and out of her lungs in steady, controlled breaths. What happened? Sam feels so slow, trying to pick up her memories like cards scattered in the wind. Recall should be instantaneous, but instead it comes gradually, frustrating her and further scattering her thoughts.

Just another thing to be frustrated at. Just another thing she has no control over.

"Are you okay, Sam?" Tigress asks, moving into Sam's line of sight. Sam blinks owlishly up at her, still trying to determine what had happened. She accepts Tigress's proffered hand and lets herself get hauled back to her feet. Sam finds that she's surprisingly balanced and is quick to withdraw her hand from the older woman's.

"Fine." Sam gives a cursory answer, too much time having passed for any answer to be convincing. Her eyes land on Doctor Fate, her memory returning shortly thereafter. "But what _happened_?"

Still impassive, the floating hero focuses on Sam but remains silent. Sam begins to think that he's ignoring her, but notices the apprehensive glances of the other heroes and realizes that he's hesitating.

Finally, he responds. "I identified two separate sources of magic. As entangled as they were with each other, I was able to identify them because they are familiar to me." He hesitates again, still without a change of expression. "You contain both Order and Chaos magic."

The only extreme reaction is Zatanna, the magician. She jerks back slightly and blinks rapidly, gaze turning to Sam with a mixture of disbelief and shock. The others only seem slightly confused, mostly by Doctor Fate's hesitation.

Nightwing speaks for Sam. "What does that mean?"

"I am… not sure." The pause is brief but present. "To my knowledge, a creation such as she has not existed. This phenomenon should not even be possible. Chaos and Order are opposites, locked in eternal battle. Joining the two energies would not have created anything. They cannot be bound."

"But here we are," Zatanna muses. Her shock seems to have worn off, completely overrun with curiosity. "Disregarding the problem of creation, the real question is what's the point? The energies should cancel each other out."

"Logically," Nightwing interjects. "And magic isn't necessarily logical." He and Tigress mirror sad smiles, catching Sam's attention until Doctor Fate speaks again.

"The energies did cancel each other out." Doctor Fate moves closer to Sam, causing her to react with a step backwards. He reaches out his hand expectantly for Sam's hand. Reluctantly, Sam lifts her arm until Doctor Fate grasps her wrist and examines the almost-clear bracelets. "These runes attempt to separate them. When the ghost returns, he will have to translate. I have not seen these runes before."

"That's because they're not from Order or Chaos," Zatanna explains. Doctor Fate is joined by Zatanna, who examines the markings on Sam's bracelets just as intently as the gold hero. Sam finds herself crowded and uncomfortable, but neither hero seems to notice. "Assuming these runes come from the Infinite Realms, where the ghost must have seen them, then that would mean there's a whole other source of magic in the mix! It makes sense. Two conflicting energies like this couldn't separate on their own, and more of either would just unbalance Sam like when your Order magic tried to interfere. The ghost must bring-"

"His name is Phantom," Sam bites out, yanking her hand out of their reach. She fights the urge to rub the bracelets self-consciously and instead folds her arms. "He's not just a ghost. I'm not just a puzzle. We're _people_."

"Objectively," Doctor Fate corrects, impassive gaze sliding to hers, "Neither of you classify as a person."

Sam feels her eyes narrow. "And what are you?" she returns, the challenge warming her blood and filling her with something akin to excitement. "You wear the body of a person, but you're just a consciousness inside of a helmet. So tell me, _Nabu_, what does that make _you_?"

Her satisfying response is shocked silence.

"Is your knowledge a result of the energy inside you?" Doctor Fate answers at last.

"As someone-excuse me, some_thing_-that doesn't have to fill my day full of pointless person activities, I find I have a lot of time to research my apparent heritage."

Sam's sarcasm elicits no response from any of the heroes.

"I read it in a book, because I like to _read_," Sam bites out.

"Where did you-"

"Okay, I think that's enough for now," Nightwing cuts Doctor Fate off, stepping forward to put himself between Doctor Fate and Sam. "We can figure out more when Phantom gets back. Thank you for coming, Doctor Fate."

Clearly recognizing the dismissal, Doctor Fate lets out a short sound of annoyance before floating purposefully out of the room.

"We don't mean to overwhelm you, Sam," Nightwing apologizes, stepping back to give her more room. "I know it may seem that way, but we're really just trying to help."

"I get it," Sam answers shortly, though her irritation is already falling under the weight of her exhaustion. "But there's more, isn't there?"

Nightwing's lips twitch into a sad smile, head dipping into a small nod. "Zatanna?"

"We know why the Light wants you now," she immediately begins. "The idea of an entity that could potentially use both Order and Chaos energy is definitely something they'd pursue. If you displayed any sort of mystic ability, they'd call for a retrieval immediately. My guess is they were trying to figure out how to utilize the energies inside of you by keeping you in stasis, but I'd need more information."

"So what does that mean for me?" Sam asks.

"They'll want you back," Nightwing states bluntly. "And obviously if you want to join them, that's your choice, but if you'd rather not, we want to offer you a place to stay here in the WatchTower."

Tigress continues before Sam can speak. "That doesn't mean you have to join us, either. You can live here until we find you somewhere more permanent or until we stop the Light. You don't have to become a hero or even figure out the energies inside you if you don't want to."

Sam feels a headache begin to crawl up the back of her head and she places her face into her hands.

"Look," broaches Tigress once more. "We realize this is difficult. We-"

"I know it's difficult!" Sam snaps, her hands falling from her face. Tears well up traitorously in her eyes again but Sam doesn't have the energy to will them away. "And I know it must be just as bad or worse for half the heroes in the WatchTower right now! You guys are being great but-" Her voice breaks and she lowers it. "It just sucks, okay?"

She ignores the silence and takes a second to wipe her eyes. Then she quickly replies before anyone else can say anything. "If I stay, Phantom can come and go." She phrases it like a statement, but it sounds like a question, almost pleading.

"Sure," Nightwing replies. "Anything else?"

"I'm sure I'll think of more later."

Nightwing nods to Tigress. "Then we can set you up in a room."

"Okay."

"Follow me," Tigress prompts, and Sam follows her out of the room, leaving behind the two dark-haired heroes. They walk in silence, for the most part, aside from a couple off-hand comments from the older hero about directions. When she begins telling Sam about the security measures, however, Sam interrupts.

"Can we go over this later?"

Tigress nods and falls silent. It doesn't last long, though, as she soon broaches another subject. "How long have you known Phantom?"

Sam regards her, already wary and exhausted. Maybe that's the point. If she's exhausted, she won't put as much effort into lying. I mean, the question seems innocent enough, but the spontaneity of it points to something more direct. Had she questioned Danny already? "What did he say?"

If Tigress was taken aback, she didn't show it. "Is there a reason you two are so reluctant to answer questions?"

"Is there a reason you care so much?" Sam bites back, though the other hero's question was more curious than mistrustful. "We're private, not evil, and you guys may be heroes but that doesn't automatically mean you have a right to every detail of our lives."

"Isn't he a ghost?"

Sam is further frustrated by the hero's thinly veiled interrogation. "He still had a life before he died, and he has one now, even if he's not strictly alive! He may be embodied by something other than skin and bones, but he's still the same person. He has thoughts, and dreams, and _feelings_."

"I'm sorry, Sam," Tigress tries. "I'm not trying to interrogate you; I'm just curious."

Sam sighs, frustrated with herself. She may be incredibly stressed out, but she could understand the woman's curiosity, couldn't she? "We've been friends for as long as I can remember," Sam allows, gently rubbing her temples to dispel some of the tension. "But I only recently started fighting ghosts with him."

"When he was first caught on camera?"

"No, before that." Sam has a pretty good idea what story Danny would've went with, but she'd rather talk with him before accidentally saying something that could contradict him. She tries to reel back her relief when they finally reach the door to Sam's new (and hopefully temporary) room, but even though there was no sigh of relief, her face spoke volumes. "Can I just…"

Sam gestures in front of her, clearly hoping for some privacy. Tigress studies her for a brief moment; her eyes set in analytic creases that quickly disappear with her bright smile. "Of course. I'll come check on you in an hour or so."

"If Phantom comes back…" Sam prompts, waving again in the general direction of the room.

Tigress nods, shows her how to open the door via the nearby keypad, and leaves.

Sam doesn't watch her go, immediately stepping into the privacy of her new temporary home. Privacy lifts the world off her shoulders for a few precious seconds, as she hadn't been alone for more than a couple minutes since she'd woken up.

She stands against the door for a few moments, trying to calm the roaring whirlwind of her thoughts. Unsuccessful, Sam attempts to distract herself with the details of her new room.

It's largely impersonal, a cross between a hotel room and a cell. It's fully furnished but it's clear the heroes had better things to do other than decorate their guest rooms. The colors are variations of white, black, and gray. With the door closed behind her, the room looks like an expensive prison.

Sam touches the keypads stuck to the walls, finding a bathroom, closet, and full wall window. The last has Sam pausing for a moment, appreciating the view of the Earth from space, idly reminding herself to show Danny later.

The stargazing clears Sam's head, and after a few minutes she pulls away and heads into the bathroom.

Using the shower, Sam scrubs her skin with soap until it stings, trying to wash off the entire ordeal. While that doesn't work, the steam does clear her head and leaves her a little more rational. Sam uses one of the two complimentary hair ties to pull her hair into a ponytail and redresses.

Now out of things to do, Sam sits gingerly on the edge of her new bed-_temporary new bed,_ she reminds herself-and stares hard out the window. Soon her vision is unfocused and she finds herself spiraling into a black hole of thoughts, instantly overwhelmed.

_Mystical… What does that even mean? Wouldn't I have known that I had magic? Wouldn't any one of the stressful events I've experienced have triggered it? Why did it only appear now? Does it have something to do with my parents? Why… Why would they do that to me?_

And, even darker:

_Did _Danny _do this to me?_

Thinking Danny's name shocks Sam into enough awareness that she realizes her eyes have filled with tears. Angry and frustrated, with herself and everything else, she picks herself up off the bed and kneels down on the floor. Bracing herself with her forearms, she lifts herself up into a plank.

_If you're going to waste all your energy pitying yourself and zoning out,_ Sam berates herself, gritting her teeth, _you're going to get better for it._

No matter how angry, frustrated, devastated, confused, violated, insignificant, objectified, small, and weak she felt, Sam refused to let herself become the victim.

* * *

**Sorry that took so long, I know I suck. But here you go ;)**

**~Disclaimer Disclaimer~**

**Also, shoutout to my friend Braeden who figured out where my fanfictions were posted and is now reading them, despite not being part of the fandom. I hope this hurts you to read ;p**


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey again."

Danny's voice startles Sam and she lets her exhausted muscles drop her body heavily on the floor. Arms screaming, she pushes herself up and into a sitting position, allowing her tired core some relief by leaning back against the bed frame. "Hey," she answers, giving him a half-hearted, tired smile.

Danny tilts his upper body forward to place a duffle bag down on the bed behind her. "Are you okay?" he asks, floating hesitantly just out of reach.

Sam closes her eyes.

"I know, dumb question." Sam's lip quirks up at the weak attempt at humor and cracks her eyes open again. Taking this as an invitation, Danny moves closer. His natural chill feels heavenly against her sweaty skin and, selfishly, she gestures him closer.

Danny grins and blows cold air on her face, instantly chilling all of her exposed skin. "Better?" he asks, a small but bright smile on his ethereal face.

"Yes, thanks," Sam replies. Danny settles down beside her, dropping his float and sitting weightlessly beside her. She leans her head on his shoulder, causing him to stiffen in surprise. He quickly relaxes and reciprocates by leaning his own head on hers. Sam forgets that they'd only been dating a few weeks (not counting the time she'd been gone) and everything is still new to Danny. For her, it was like they'd been dating for years.

They're silent for a while, Sam letting her mind go blank with the comfort Danny's presence provides. There's a kind of peace she's always felt when they sit together, a balance of her thoughts and emotions and… well, kind of her whole life. "Do you remember freshman and sophomore year? When one tiny thing would happen and you'd say everything's falling apart?"

"Yeah," comes Danny's soft reply.

Sam presses her lips together, still clinging to the silence but dying to talk. "I think I finally get it." She can feel Danny react to her words, the slight stiffening in his core that means he disagrees, but the immediate exhale that suggests he's about to agree with her anyway. Sam hurries to explain before he can. "I don't mean I understand what it's like to feel like that all the time, but when you would… fail a math test, you know? You would get all anxious and pace and… Anyway, yeah. I feel like everything's falling apart around me, like I'm going to have to abandon everything I knew and become a whole new person."

Danny lets the silence stretch for a moment before replying. "Well, that's kinda what you're doing. Your life did fall apart around you. For me, it only felt like that. You don't have the anxiety I have. You see things more rationally, Sam." Danny's gloved hand dwarfs her own, sending a shiver up Sam's arm. "Tucker and I are still here. You're safe now." Danny pauses, trying to come up with another one. Sam watches him with a deepening frown before a wicked smirk crosses his face. "No more pink dresses."

Sam feels a smile attempt to pull up her lips. She lets it, a little. "No more balls."

"Restraining orders."

"Underhanded attempts to change my room while I'm gone."

"Guilt trips." Danny pauses, contemplative, so Sam withholds her response to allow him room to speak again. After a few moments, he continues with, "Remember that summer vacation where they wanted you to go to France with them for two months?"

"For the fashion shows?" Sam scoffs, rolling her eyes. She puckers her face into an imitation of her mother. "_Samantha_, darling, _please_ reconsider. After all we've done for you, would you _just once_ come with us and learn how to _properly _dress?" The emphasis is a bit much, but Danny chuckles anyway, leaning his head forward so his bangs momentarily hide his face from view.

Sam allows a fond smile to pull at her face. No one could make her feel better like Danny could.

The moment is broken with a firm knock at the door. Sam immediately tenses, the weight of the world finding place in her mind once again. Danny takes this as an opportunity to help her out, going to the door for her.

When it slides back, Sam recognizes Tigress even from her poor vantage point. Tigress smiles and nods at Danny, her eyes glossing over him to focus on her. "Mess hall is serving dinner," she says, tilting her head slightly in the direction of the cafeteria. "They serve food around the clock but dinner's clocked five to nine."

Danny looks back at Sam, a question in his eyes.

Fully aware Tigress can still see her, Sam shakes her head.

"Maybe later," Danny offers, smiling politely.

"Whenever you'd like. The later you are, the less people will bother you." Tigress's gaze finds Sam again, her face unreadable. "We want to have a meeting about how to proceed," she continues. _About you_, she doesn't say aloud. "It'll be tomorrow in the afternoon."

"Do you-" Danny turns to Sam and gestures to the older superhero. Sam nods once and Danny turns back. "Can I be there?"

"It will be about you, too." Tigress looks between them. "I'd like to extend an invitation to attend a practice tomorrow morning in the gym. Many of the team members will be there."

Sam laughs humorously, eight different retorts all tumbling into her mouth.

Tigress, with a wry smile, holds up her hand to stop Sam's argument before it even begins. "I know it's very new, and you haven't even come to terms with all the changes, but I hope you'll accept anyway. It could be therapeutic." She eyes Danny. "I'd like to see what you can do."

Danny blinks in surprise, his hand instantly coming up to rub his neck. In agitation, his aura glows slightly brighter and he lifts a couple of inches in the air. Nervous energy radiates from him.

"I have-" Danny halts, trying to clear the stammer Sam can already predict will happen no matter what. "It's- Ghosts attack a lot in the mornings-I don't want to refuse, or-or leave Sam-you alone, I just-"

"No worries," Tigress interrupts smoothly. "Another time. We'll see you at the meeting?"

Danny nods, eager to be let off the hook without offending anyone. "I'll be here by three."

Sensing that Sam and Danny were both finished with the conversation, Tigress nods a goodbye. "Training's at ten. See you both tomorrow."

"Yeah," Danny chirps, waving before closing the door. He turns to Sam, a wavering smile. As attuned to her longtime best friend as she is, Sam recognizes the anxiety that usually follows an unexpected confrontation.

"Thanks for doing that," Sam says, attempting to assuage his anxiety. It works; Danny's smile grows more genuine and he dips his head in a nod. "Are the ghosts really the reason you won't be there tomorrow morning?"

"I-it's a Wednesday."

"Oh," Sam offers lamely. He has school. Wait- "Isn't it June?" Irrationally, anger immediately bubbles up. Was he trying to lie to her? To get out of something she had no excuse to say no to?

"No, no, it's a _Wednesday_," Danny stresses. Sam glares, clearly not understanding his meaning. "My parents open the portal on Wednesdays, to gather data?"

_Oh_. Sam's anger deflates. Danny's always busy on Wednesdays. His parents work on the portal all morning, letting out all kinds of ghosts that Danny spends hours rounding up. During school, he does as much damage control as possible before a threat forces him to transform, but on days without school he cleans up the messes as they happen. Stupid, to forget that. Stupid, to immediately assume Danny was abandoning her.

"Sorry," Sam deadpans, looking down.

"It's fine," he responds airily. "I brought some of your things."

Sam accepts the obvious topic change and muscles to her feet, body protesting at the sudden movement. She moves to the duffel bag and begins rifling through it.

Inside are a collection of clothes, a couple full outfits in total. There's a few hoodies, one Tucker's, another Danny's, and the last one she doesn't recognize. There are some of her books, one she remembered she'd lent to Danny for a ghost that he hadn't yet returned. Beyond those, there are the comms she liked to wear as earrings, a couple of her music CDs, her scrapbook, the Boo-merang, some bottles of goth perfume and other containers of black makeup she kept to annoy her parents, and her backup backup camera.

"Where'd all this come from?" Sam asks, wondering if she really left so much stuff laying around or if they were simply left behind at her house.

Danny ticks them off his fingers. "Your school locker, your _gym_ locker, the floorboard in your room, Tucker's house and my house."

Sam purses her lips. So she _does _just leave this much stuff lying around. Fingering the Boo-merang with an amused smile, her gaze falls on the unfamiliar black sweatshirt. Dropping the stupidly named tracking device, she grabs at the fabric and shakes it free of its folds. She eyes the DP emblem at the front of the hoodie and glances at Danny, who's blushing faintly with his hand on his neck.

"Your birthday present," he offers awkwardly, focusing on the duffel bag. "You like to wear our hoodies so I figured I'd just get you another one."

"It's ironic," Sam points out, feeling a truly genuine smile come over her face. "I love it." She doesn't mention that the reason she likes their hoodies is for the smell. Why she liked Danny's smell was obvious-she has liked him since she knew what the word meant-but it was more than that. Tucker and Danny's respective smells were comforting, though Tucker's did sometimes stink of meat or that awful cologne he'd made. They made her feel safe, Sam had relented long ago.

True to habit Sam sniffs the hoodie, surprised to find it smell exactly like Danny's human form. She looks at him over the hoodie bunched to her nose.

"I wore it to bed for a week," he explains, blushing. "Boyfriends do that, right?"

"Only the good ones," Sam replies, lowering the hoodie to reveal her smile. Then she pretends to contemplate. "And the mainstream ones."

"Hey! I'm not the one obsessed with the other's clothes!"

Sam's smirk turns teasing. "Yes, I'd imagine you'd be obsessed with the opposite, being a mainstream boyfriend."

Danny makes an awkward squeaking sound that Sam had never heard from him before. She laughs openly, causing Danny's prominent blush to deepen. Impressed with herself, Sam returns to rummaging through her things, leading the conversation into lighter and, for Danny's benefit, less embarrassing topics.

The night stretches long as they chat, neither willing to break the light mood with things they probably should be figuring out. Danny doesn't mention his curfew and Sam doesn't remind him. Eventually, without conscious effort, Sam drifts off to sleep, Danny still recounting a story from their freshman year.

With her eyes closed and Danny's voice in her ear, Sam can almost imagine nothing's changed at all.

* * *

Batman's frown deepens at the sparse chart in front of him. "This is all we know?"

"So far," Nightwing confirms.

Batman doesn't respond, instead switching the screens to the ghost. Far more information clutters this chart, filled with links to news articles and mentioning more rumors than fact. What is known for sure is very little: the date Phantom was first caught on camera, what events he was involved in, and a partial list of abilities.

Because the news articles tended to contradict each other at almost every opportunity, little more can be certain. For instance, Phantom's apparent involvement in a robbery seemed completely out of character for the otherwise helpful ghost. More records of misdeeds had Batman's suspicions piqued, but something didn't quite ring true.

"You did the studies on this?" Batman directed to Nightwing.

"From what I've found, the rumors of Phantom began almost three weeks before he was confirmed to exist on camera. There's no telling how long he was there before being first spotted, though I'd reasonably assume it began after the Fentons opened their portal."

Tigress jumps in here. "He mentioned he'd known Sam her entire life, suggesting he was there longer."

"Then why wouldn't rumors have started earlier?" Red Robin jumps in, addressing them both.

"Maybe because there weren't many other ghosts until after the portal opened and drew him out," Nightwing suggests, his face pressed into lines of concentration. Anyone could tell he was enjoying it, though. It was rare that a difficult case presented itself without pressing danger.

"We can't draw conclusions until confirmed," Batman chides, trying to redirect the conversation. "Nightwing."

Nightwing continues with his findings as if he had never been interrupted. "Following the opening of the portal, ghost attacks began to appear in the news. Before, it was largely regarded as a tourism stunt, but now the evidence was coming from every newspaper in the city.

"Phantom, once he was first caught on camera, began showing up far more frequently. His initial reception was positive, but after some kind of accident involving the mayor, the opinions started changing. The press began a poll debating whether he was genuinely trying to help or just pretending to in order to gain their trust."

Nightwing pauses here for the others to jump in with their questions.

"His outlook may be good," Tigress begins, trying to play devil's advocate to her own instinct to trust the ghost, "but these instances-the kidnapping of the mayor, the robberies, the property damages and citizen accounts… They're definitely something to investigate."

"Of course," Red Robin agrees, "but I'm inclined to take Phantom's side. These accidents don't make sense. If Phantom was only trying to gain their trust, why would these things happen? Considering the possibility that they're a slip up of his true nature, why would he do so for only these particular accidents? The press documents his repeated protection and defense of the human in the city rather than the ghosts, so why would he randomly decide to attack the mayor during a ghost invasion? He ended up driving out the ghosts in the end, with the mayor not only surviving, but also without any memory of the supposed kidnapping. There was never another attempt made on the mayor, which is strange. If so much planning went into fooling the entirety of the city's population, why would he slip up to attack the mayor without accomplishing anything, and so blatantly in front of the people he wanted to trick?"

Red Robin begins to pace, his mind swirling with the possibilities. The others watch as the musings continue to pour out of the young detective. While clearly giving the investigation plenty of thought, ideas continued to occur to him and he found himself uncharacteristically thinking out loud.

"And the robberies. Phantom appeared to completely change his image in a matter of days. Instead of helping the people, he began stealing from them, in plain sight. He could've easily robbed them invisibly, as he'd proven to be able to do. But instead he did so in plain sight, on camera, with companions he'd never been spotted with before. And then, of course, all the money was returned along with the proven culprit."

His pacing slows, his conclusion apparently drawn. "Many unknown variables surround most of these accidents, and I'd like to investigate each, but my intuition says he's doing his best. Overall, he appears to be helping."

Nightwing nods his assent. "I agree. Property damage is part of the job."

"So you agree he's a possible asset?" The three murmur assent to Batman's question. "Tigress?"

"He's… Sweet," she replies. "Clearly concerned about Sam, protective and loyal. He seems genuine. I believe he has his secrets, but so has everyone else. I don't want to jump into anything, but if he were to be a hero, it could be valuable. I wanted to try his powers at the training session tomorrow to see what's true from the articles, but if even half are true, he could be a great addition to the team."

"A game changer," Nightwing adds, nodding. "The stats on this guy…"

"He could easily have taken the world by surprise," Red Robin mentions, seemingly lost in thought. "The fact that he hasn't is already a good sign."

"Confer with other senior members of the team," Batman orders, closing down the tabs. "If they agree, evaluate Phantom and if the results are positive, offer him a trial position."

The three automatically accept the orders.

"And Sam?"

Batman's face is unreadable. "She's far more dangerous. With no idea the nature or extent of her abilities, along with her expressly aggressive response to the team, she presents even more unknown variables." His voice is hard, stating harsh facts about the girl without a hint of remorse. "But-" His hesitation takes the others by surprise. "She, by all appearances, is a civilian drawn forcibly into our world. Tread lightly, but she may prove to be an asset as well."

"In that case, I'll go brief the team," Tigress says, turning back to the Zeta Beam.

Tigress can't help but take Sam's side. _She's just a civilian._ Despite Batman's paranoid instructions for wariness, Tigress feels sympathy sway them away.

_She's just a civilian._

Of course, such as fate, so are all the innocents.

* * *

**Hey... So... this is probably the longest it has ever taken me to update, and for that I apologize. My motivation disappeared and I found myself literally doing nothing but watching YouTube. Quarantine, man... It's not great. Anyway, I found Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and so I'm happy again :) **

**No promises on updates, but feeling more motivated and hopefully, if this chapter is well received, it will follow soon. I have a bunch of ideas in mind for this particular story. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

"Are you _literally_ using that?!"

Sam's confident entrance falters, betraying just how false her bravado was. It takes her a tense moment to realize that the gorgeous blonde stomping in her direction is not talking to her but the Robin behind her, who's attempting to follow with small steps and an impassive expression.

"After all we've been through-" the girl whirls around, still either ignoring or unaware of Sam's entrance, letting her hands curl into fists as she glares at the hooded boy. "You're going to give me another non explanation, saying it's the _mission_, telling me to _trust you_ and ignore all the reasons I shouldn't! I'm done fighting you!" She turns again, beginning to storm off again before realizing Sam is still hovering in the doorway, unsure of what to do or whether to run. The blonde stops, still seething but now turning red from embarrassment at her display. "Sorry," she bites out to Sam, the animosity clearly aimed at the person behind her.

Sam steps out of her way, but the girl doesn't go through the door. After a moment spent closing her eyes and taking a breath in, the girl exhales sharply and jerks out her hand. "I'm Wondergirl."

Sam blinks, fixating on the hand with a blank stare. "Sam," she offers after a beat, shaking the strong hand once before pulling her own back.

Robin takes a step towards the both of them. "Sorry about that-"

"Oh, _sure_!" Wondergirl erupts, her small amount of composure fleeing from her newly-kindled anger. "You'll apologize to _her_!"

"There is time for this later," a new voice joins, firm and commanding. Both teens back down, turning to face the new woman entering the area. She's wearing an outfit of black leather, and Sam immediately appreciates how the woman wears it. It's not the clothes themselves, stylish as they are in Sam's opinion, but how the woman moves in them, like they're shadows clinging to her skin.

"I'm Black Canary," she introduces herself for Sam's benefit. "Welcome to training. As many of you have noticed, the Outsiders have agreed to join us today."

For the first time Sam realizes there are far more teenagers in the room than the vitriolic blonde and her boyfriend. In addition to the bickering couple, who'd joined two separate groups, there were perhaps a dozen more heroes in varying costumes. Sam recognizes Miss Martian, Nightwing, Tigress, and Superboy, who are loosely grouped together, though Nightwing seems tailed by four other teenagers and Miss Martian by five or six more.

As the only one dressed in plain clothes, alone, and not intending to participate, Sam regrets coming. She drifts to the edge of the room, watching the heroes move.

Black Canary sets up a training course and explains the rules, setting the others into groups. Sam is left out, along with the senior members of the team. Tigress meets her gaze from her position several feet away and gestures her over, Sam gratefully complying and moving over to stand slightly behind the older woman.

The training is a kind of obstacle course, albeit far more dangerous and complicated than any course Sam had ever seen. It's about a fourth of a mile, stretching in a large circle around the room. The first part has stumps of unequal size jutting out from the ground, followed by a series of metal bars, some vertical and some horizontal, that would need to be navigated. The next stretch featured a large climbing wall with no ropes provided, taking the obstacle course to around thirty feet in the air.

After navigating ropes strung high above the ground, the runner would then have to pass through an area of moving lasers. Touching the lasers, Black Canary explains, would add to their time. Any use of powers or gadgets would result in a penalty.

Remembering Danny's carefree attitude when running through similar courses, Sam found it amusing that every hero seemed to be taking the rules as serious as they would if the scenario were real. It helped that the obstacles resembled real world items such as crates and brick walls, as opposed to the colorful plastic objects that usually composed obstacle courses.

The first heroes were called up: Halo, a sweet looking girl with an outfit covering everything but her face, Red Robin, and Kid Flash, a boy with a yellow costume and red hair that looked far too arrogant for Sam's liking. The three lined up, Halo having to be reminded to set her feet on the ground, and Black Canary called out the start.

It was obvious that the real race was between the two boys before they'd even cleared the first obstacle. Halo was struggling to find her way around the jutting pillars while Robin launched himself between them without hesitation. The other boy, while lacking Robin's obvious acrobatic prowess, was obviously the faster of the two and kept up easily enough.

The bars presented more of a challenge for the yellow-clad hero, as he was clearly more comfortable on his feet. Robin pulled ahead and started scaling the wall with ease. After his feet were back in play, Kid Flash began catching up, catching up to Robin by the time he reached the top of the wall. They were neck and neck through the ropes, again pitting skill against speed, before they climbed down to the lasers.

Here is where Kid Flash passed Robin, darting through the lasers far faster than the other boy, who flipped around them and calculated their path carefully before moving. Kid Flash took first with Robin seconds behind, and the two grabbed a breath while Halo stumbled through the rest of the course, accidently initiating flight several times and apologizing profusely each time.

Once she crossed the finish line, Black Canary gave the place of winner to Red Robin.

"What?" Kid Flash interjects, mouth screwing into a petulant frown. "I totally moded that guy!"

"With your speed," Robin retorts, deadpan. "You used your hyper-reflexes in the lasers."

"That's natural," Kid Flash argues, folding his arms. "I can't just forget that."

They continue bickering until Black Canary calls for silence once more. She gives a quick rundown of their strengths and weaknesses in the course before sending them to the next portion of training that Tigress was placed in charge of. The next members were chosen and started, and the room continued to fill as more heroes rotated exercises.

Nightwing ended up taking over the course as Black Canary began sparring sessions, and Miss Martian began a flying course that Wondergirl and Halo both threw themselves into enthusiastically. Sam eventually sat, watching the different activities with a carefully controlled face that hid her amazement.

After a couple hours spent entertaining herself by watching the lessons, Wondergirl decides she's finished with training for the day and comes over to talk with Sam.

"Getting bored?" she asks, setting herself down cross legged beside Sam.

"Not really," Sam replies, nodding to the sparring session where two of the boys are fighting brutally. "It's fun to watch."

"I guess," Wondergirl mopes, looking around her. "It gets boring after a while."

"First time," Sam explains, gesturing to herself. Opting to redirect the conversation before the girl starts asking questions, she continues, "What's with you and Robin?"

Wondergirl huffs. "Sorry about that. I just get so angry sometimes. He keeps doing things without telling me. Big, life changing things." She scoffs, frowning petulantly. Sam wonders if the resplendent girl in stylish clothing and star-shaped earrings even means to look so snobbish. She reminds Sam of Jazz, almost. Stuck up at first glance but simply passionate with a funny way of showing it. "And then," she goes on, her jaw tightening and her eyes flashing in righteous anger, "he says 'trust me'. He's keeping things from me, lying, sneaking around, ignoring my calls, and his only response is 'trust me'."

Sam regards her. Blonde, blue-eyed, gorgeous. Everything Sam's wired to hate, but for some reason, she can't bring herself to even be annoyed. "And no apology? Explanation?"

"None." The girl's eyes darken before she visibly calms herself, looking at her shining bracelets until her eyes clear. "Anyway, boyfriend problems." Considerably cheerier, she shifts closer to Sam, turning her body more in her direction. "Got any yourself?"

Sam shrugs. She and Danny had been pulled out of their honeymoon period. They hadn't even fought yet. It was all holding hands, watching scary movies under the covers, a hesitant first kiss (the real first kiss, not counting the fakeout makeouts) and a few more following. Danny hadn't even settled yet. He wasn't even _comfortable_ yet. And then he had a two month break from her. Sam knows she needs to talk to him, but there are so many other things going on… Can she just assume he's the same as before, just for a little bit? That they are both missing two months?

"Not sure," she answers finally, trying to ignore the tickle in the back of her mind reminding Sam that she was participating in probably _the _most cliche girl conversation ever. "Everything's so crazy."

"How long have you guys been together?" Wondergirl then pauses, tapping her chin with her finger. "It is the Phantom guy, right?"

Sam smiles thinly, though not from irritation. So many problems. So many things to fix. "Yeah. And we got together on April 19th." Sam had memorized the date. She'd been waiting for the two of them to get together for years. She was going to do something special for their one-month anniversary, no matter how cliche.

"Only a couple months?"

Sam regards her. She's bright-eyed. Innocent, maybe? Or just optimistic? "Less than that," Sam corrects.

Wondergirl's expression quickly switches to something more apologetic. "Sorry about that. I knew that."

Sam mumbles a couple vague assurances and switches the topic back to her. "So are you an Amazon like Wonder Woman?"

"Yeah," she chirps, her mood turned again. "A little different though."

Sam waits for her to continue but she doesn't, her attention drifting to watching the other heroes run through their exercises.

"I'd like to be an Amazon," Sam declares suddenly, drawing the other girl's attention back to her. "Warriors, righteous, inhabitants of an island away from modern society and politics… Awesome."

"There are no guys, though. Wouldn't you miss Phantom?"

Sam waves this off. "If I'd never met him, I'd probably be fine. Besides, I'm sure he could be there, he just can't touch the ground, right?"

Wondergirl arches a perfect eyebrow. "How would you know that?"

Sam shrugs. "I like mythology."

Wondergirl shrugs, her attention moving away again. Sam watches her gaze follow her boyfriend, a small frown accentuating her painfully pretty face. Again, Sam tries to fall back on her disgust of the social norms and find a reason to dislike this model of a superhero fawning over her boyfriend, but either she doesn't have the energy or simply can't find the will. Blonde, perky, but not easy to hate. Sam finds that she's frustrated with that.

After another long stretch of time, Red Robin comes up to join the pair of girls, his cape abandoned and a light sheen of sweat covering his exposed skin. "Can I join you?" he asks, wary, but still far from timid.

Wondergirl seems to look for a retort that would undoubtedly start another argument, so Sam jumps in with a casual "sure".

Without any reaction to either of the girls, the masked hero falls into a crossed-legs position on the floor in front of him. He sits ramrod straight, Sam notices, like some kind of mini soldier. There's silence for a minute, but it's by no means calm. Wondergirl still seems irritated and Red Robin is on guard, his stiff posture the only clue that he's uncomfortable.

Sam resists the urge to roll her eyes.

"How well do you know Phantom?" Red Robin asks abruptly. Sam lazily turns her gaze to him. Avoiding Wondergirl's anger and questioning Sam at the same time? Either he's being strategic or he's just really awkward around his pissed off girlfriend.

"Pretty well," Sam responds in a flippant tone, trying to irritate him. She might've just met Wondergirl, but Sam was inclined to take her side in whatever fight she and her boyfriend were having. "As well as he knows me."

Her dis is subtle, but Wondergirl slides Sam a glance, her eyebrows raised a fraction.

Red Robin, if he sensed her true meaning, ignores it and continues on. "Can you explain the contradictions seen in the news?"

"Probably. Most times I was there, but if I wasn't he explained what was going on later."

There's a slight edge to her otherwise casual voice and Sam can't resist throwing Wondergirl a small smile. Wondergirl's eyebrows raise higher and her smile grows just a little.

Red Robin seems to pause, and Sam gets the feeling that he doesn't appreciate what either girl is doing. In a tone only slightly more sharp, he asks, "What about who he was before? How he died?"

Sam couldn't be sure if it was his intention to set her off or simply make her uncomfortable, but she feels every muscle clench as her eyes turn back to the hero. "It isn't your business," Sam responds slowly, clipping each word. Her glare dares him to push the issue.

He doesn't react to it at all. "It shouldn't matter," he reasons, shifting back into a slightly more comfortable position so he can relish in his victory of turning the conversation back at Sam. "If you know, then he must be able to speak about it. The information could be useful for any number of reasons, depending on if the cause of his death can still affect him or his prior identity could be used-"

Sam jumps to her feet, her pulse pounding in her head. Anger turns her blood hot as she intensifies her glare at the boy still sitting calmly on the floor. He pauses when she moves, regarding her reaction and no doubt filing every detail away. "I said," Sam seethes, "it's _none of your business_. You don't have the first idea of what a ghost is like, and don't even pretend to know what is and isn't personal to Phantom. Dying is _traumatic_, in case you couldn't put that together-"

Sam only feels her fury rising, but Wondergirl intervenes here, wrapping her hand around Sam's upper arm and pulling her a few steps away. "You know what you're doing, Robin," she states bluntly. "C'mon Sam, let's go get some food."

With one last glare, Sam turns away, allowing herself to be carted off to the cafeteria.

* * *

Sam hadn't realized how ravenous she was until she caught the first whiff of the vegetarian garden pasta she'd requested off the menu. She hadn't eaten since she'd woken up, almost a full day before.

After completing the pasta dish, Sam returns to the salad bar for a full plate of her favorite leafy greens and a myriad of different colorful vegetables. Wondergirl regards her with an amused expression as she returns with another full plate.

"Health nut?" she asks, swirling her fork in her own dish, more pasta with a thick white sauce. Apparently, the Italian theme had carried on to today.

Sam hesitates, grateful her mouth is full. "Vegetarian," she responds after swallowing, returning her gaze to her plate. She would've said Ultra-recyclo vegetarian, as she normally would, but for some reason, the conversation that would surely follow didn't seem appealing. For once in her life, the goth individualist was simply not in the mood to advocate her choices.

"Sweet. We've got a few heroes like that. You guys would probably get along."

"Just because we have the same dietary choices doesn't mean we'd be friends," Sam points out. Normally, she'd follow this up with an intense speech about the injustices of grouping vegetarians together based on their stereotypes, but again, Sam finds the idea too exhausting.

Wondergirl shrugs. "The chances are higher." She goes back to swirling her fork around in her noodles, occasionally bringing the food to her lips only when the noodles were securely wrapped around the utensil. Sam can tell she's brooding; Wondergirl doesn't seem the type to eat so deliberately. Sam already knew what was wrong and figured the other girl had already messed with it enough for today, so she decided not to bring it up again.

Still, she'd rather not allow the insufferably friendly blonde turn the conversation back to her. "What's your passion?" Sam asks, deciding she'd like to see the heroine bouncy and energetic again.

When the other girl tilts her head slightly at her in confusion, Sam chews her salad with an interested stare, prompting her answer.

"Helping people," she answers. Sam gestures for her to go on, mostly to explain, but Wondergirl misunderstands and begins listing others. "I- um… I like learning combat. And-and flying. I like dogs. Um, hanging out with the team! Missions."

Sam swallows, then waves her fork at the stuttering girl across from her. "I mean your real passion. You know, something you could wonder about forever."

She goes to load her fork up with more salad, but Wondergirl shoots Sam's question back at her to buy time. Without missing a beat, Sam responds, "Plants. Reading. History, mostly legends and mythology. I have quite a few, rather than one big one. Do you have something like that?"

Wondergirl's face screws up, and Sam almost feels bad for asking such a personal question, not that she could've known. Eventually, though, the blonde seems to rest on a suitable answer. "Exploring, I guess. I like the world."

"Cool." Sam means for her to go on, but she bites her lip and stares at her pasta again. The goth sighs, setting down her fork on her mostly empty plate. "Did I offend you? I tend to do that."

Wondergirl's eyes dart up, suddenly wide with worry. "Oh, no, no. I'm sorry, I'm having a weird day, you know. I think you're great, I'm sorry, I don't mean to act offended."

Sam shrugs, indifferent. "Just wondering. I don't get along with girls much."

"You get along with me just fine," Wondergirl assures her, flashing her a genuine smile.

"Surprisingly," Sam jests, sending her a sly smile, "You seem to be everything I hate." Wondergirl quirks an eyebrow with an amused smile, so Sam explains further. "Blonde, peppy, sparkly. You know, classic cheerleader."

Wondergirl rolls her eyes. "I get excited about things. Doesn't mean I'm a cheerleader." She huffs, tossing her hair over her shoulder and only proving Sam's point. "Does that mean you don't hate me, though?"

Sam pretends to consider, before allowing, "You're okay, Wondergirl."

Wondergirl rolls her eyes. "You can call me Cassie. Or Cass."

"Oh, we're at the point of revealing secret identities?"

Wondergirl-Cassie-waves off the sentiment as if it's nothing. "Mine's not really a secret anyway. Don't really wear a mask."

"Why's that?"

Sam and Cassie devolve into superhero costume conversation, occasionally praising a specific piece or making fun of another. Sam finds herself pleasantly surprised at Cassie's unique opinions, and they spend much of their time bantering. The goth wouldn't go so far as to say she and the blonde heroine became fast friends, as they had yet to discuss anything real, but the conversation was easy, and Sam found herself enjoying the other girl's company.

They're interrupted nearly an hour and a half later in one of the common rooms, where they'd relocated after finishing up lunch.

"Hey," Phantom broaches, hesitant to interrupt the girls' conversation. Sam glances at him, an easy smile falling into place. "Red Robin said I could find you guys in here." Sam throws an eye roll in Cassie's direction that the girl returns with a long suffering sigh. Phantom fidgets slightly with his fingers at their exchange, looking awkward. "Do you mind if I join you guys?"

"Yeah, of course," Cass invites warmly. Sam only glances at Danny, raising her eyebrows as if to challenge why he even thought he had to ask in the first place. Returning both responses with a sheepish smile, Danny perches on the top of the couch between the two, just barely sitting on the edge.

"This is Cassie," Sam introduces, amiable until realizing she'd just outed the other superhero's identity. "If she doesn't mind me telling you her real name, that is."

Cass rolls her eyes, letting out an exaggerated sigh. "Well, even if I wasn't, it's not like I could stop you." She looks at Danny. "But yeah, I'm Cassie."

Danny offers a smile and a little wave. "Phantom."

Sam senses Danny's subdued behavior and lightly kicks her foot at his leg. "What's up? You're being…" Sam searches for a word that would get a rise out of him. "Timid."

Danny rolls his eyes but doesn't immediately argue with her as per usual. "Not timid. Tired. It was a long day."

"Early morning?" Sam asks in clarification.

Danny nods. "Like three a.m. early."

Sam scrunches her face in distaste. Cass looks between the two's conversation, amused, and takes the lull as an opportunity to interject. "Ghosts sleep?"

Danny, who'd relaxed infinitesimally, immediately stiffens back up as he fights his disdain. "Some," he responds, not elaborating. "I do."

Cass, while her eyes still shine with curiosity, frowns at his answer. "Sorry, is that too personal?"

I answer for him. "He's probably just not in the mood for questions."

The blonde accepts this in stride and changes the conversation to something far more neutral, but Danny still doesn't relax his posture. Sam lets that fade to the back of her worries after a few minutes, figuring he'd relax when he was comfortable.

He doesn't get the chance, however, as Tigress enters the common area and heads straight for the trio. Sam, anticipating her message, swings her feet off the couch and stands. "Time to go?"

Tigress nods, glancing between the goth and the ghost, before sending a cheerful wave at Cass. She waves back at the three of them, not moving from her own position on the couch. The two women walk away together, Danny trailing after them in visible apprehension. _His nerves must be a wreck,_ Sam muses. To help, she offers her hand to the ghost with a slight grin.

Smiling back a bit more hesitantly, he takes her hand, lowering his flight closer to her height but still preferring floating to walking. After a small squeeze of reassurance, Sam turns her attention to the older superhero. "What can we expect?"

"Well, we didn't learn much from just a night of searching, but we'll go over that later. Really, this is more to decide long-term what we should do, for as long as things stay relatively quiet."

"Oh, okay," Sam responds, though she doesn't feel any more confident about the meeting than she did before.

"Relax," Tigress suggests with a tinge of humor in her voice. "You guys look like you're going to trial."

Sam grins back at her, but Danny still looks deep in his own thoughts.

Tigress opens up a door, gesturing them inside with her arm. "Right through here."

With another reassuring squeeze, Sam pulls Danny into the room before relinquishing his hand to seem a bit more professional.

Her eyes flick around the occupants sitting at the large table centered in the middle of the room, which included many of the same heroes she'd originally woken up with, with the exclusion of Superboy and the addition of Doctor Fate, Zatanna and…

Oh crap.

Sam inwardly groans.

If she'd known Batman would be here to decide their fate, she probably would've asked Danny to stay home. He's anxious enough as it is.

The two are led by Tigress to their designated chairs, which Sam accepts gratefully, her weakened knees betraying her otherwise well suppressed nerves. Danny forgoes the chair completely, hovering anxiously several inches above the seat.

"Well?" Sam asks, addressing all the heroes before her. "Who are we starting with, me or Phantom?"

Batman immediately responds, though it's with a command, not an answer. "Doctor Fate."

"Though I would previously have argued that the creation of a creature of both Order and Chaos magic is impossible, the evidence before me is undeniable. The Light obviously intended to weaponize the energy, possibly one that could stand against both Lords of Order and Chaos, and possibly other magical creatures from other realms. Because of the nature of Order and Chaos, the energy should cancel itself out, as the two are opposites. However, that was not the case.

"With the interference of a third energy, created by this ghost, a talisman was created that allowed for some semblance of balance. It's possible that because of this, the energies can be utilized, but because something of this nature has never occurred before, I cannot be certain of any outcome."

Batman doesn't wait for Doctor Fate's words to sink in before continuing. "After discussion with both Doctor Fate and Zatanna, the League has determined that you may stay in the Watchtower and undergo training."

"I would be running point on that," Zatanna clarifies, sending a stern glance at both Batman and Doctor Fate.

Sam blinks once, feeling all their eyes on her. With a slight waver in her voice, she shoots back, "Do I get a choice?"

Placatingly, Nightwing answers for Batman. "Of course. You don't have to stay, and if you do you don't have to train, but we're offering."

"Before you make your decision," Batman continues promptly, sweeping the discussion along, "The League's covert team of teenage heroes have likewise decided to offer Phantom a position."

Miss Martian enters the conversation here, though much gentler and slower than the Gotham hero. "We've reviewed what you've done in Amity Park and we do have a few questions we'd like to ask you about what we found, but overall we're impressed with what you've accomplished."

Nightwing continues when she glances over at him. "We'd like to start with a trial period, so we can decide if you and the team work well together. It'd be for a couple weeks, mostly training. Like Sam, you're free to decline."

Danny is silent, so Sam cranes her neck up at him to gauge his reaction. He'd gone tense again, his eyes judging the heroes in front of him with no small amount of apprehension, but Sam can see an underlying current of curiosity. Danny might not have idolized the heroes like Tucker did, but he didn't actively dislike them like Sam, either. He was irritated that they seemed to ignore Amity Park altogether but also recognized the good they did and looked up to them.

"I still have a city to protect," he answers at last, visibly settling on an answer, "and my schedule can be a wreck sometimes, but sure. I'd like to try it out, if that's okay."

Nightwing grins and Miss Martian nods enthusiastically at the ghost. Batman doesn't respond to the news at all. Instead, he turns to the magicians in the room. "You're dismissed."

Doctor Fate gives a terse nod and floats off, though Zatanna lingers a moment longer to wave goodbye to the other heroes in the room. Before they'd fully left, Batman angles his face towards Sam and Danny again. "So are you."

Ignoring the annoyance that rises in Sam at Batman's blunt tone, she stands from her chair, carefully filtering her expression. Sam has a lot to think about after this incredibly short meeting, but in order to maintain what little dignity she still had after her meltdown the day before, she'd been trying to look neutral. She nods at them and pushes out the chair, standing quickly and taking a few steps away.

Danny moves to follow, but Batman stops him. "We still need to discuss some things with you, Phantom."

Sam looks back to the ghost, who immediately nods, though his nerves seemed to have spiked. He casts one last glance at Sam to offer her a shaky smile before she continues walking out of the room.

Walking down the corridor, alone for the first time since that morning, Sam feels a pang of… something. It feels somewhere between contempt and hurt at the exclusion. She tries to console herself, thinking vehemently that this wouldn't happen often, but she couldn't bring herself to believe her own lie. Like it or not, if Danny became a part of this team, he'd be doing a lot of things with the heroes that she wasn't a part of.

More than everything else that had happened in the past two days, Sam was worried that that would hurt the most.

* * *

**I know I know, I apologize. But I have been working on this a lot, even though quarantine has got me busy with a million other things, ironically enough. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think or if I need to change anything. This is still my first attempt at a third person story and I'm not sure if I'm staying parallel or falling into patterns. **

**Thank you, **

**Starr**


	7. Chapter 7

Danny barely gets a moment to register that Sam has left before the questions begin shooting at him from the Dark Knight himself.

"Can you explain the instances in the news that have accused you of kidnapping, robbery, breaking and entering, extensive property damage, and assault, among other things?"

Danny blinks. He's being asked to explain himself? Weird… He tries to remember if he ever had to. Sam and Tucker had been there and already knew what had happened. And Jazz knew it wasn't him, so she either drew her own conclusions or Danny simply told the story. But explaining? Advocating for himself? Danny didn't think he'd ever been given the chance.

"Wait." Danny interrupts his own thoughts, drawing his attention back to the people his mouth had addressed. "Why would you offer me a spot on-sorry, I meant a trial spot- on the team if you knew about all of this?"

Red Robin speaks up for the first time. "Is that an admission of guilt?"

Danny tries to discern Red Robin's tone, if it's sarcastic or accusing, but fails miserably. "No. It's just… I don't know." He shrugs running a gloved hand through his thick white hair. "Everyone just kinda _assumes _it was me."

Nightwing smirks. "You're not the first hero to get bad press or to get blamed for things happening around town. Superman's powers once got blamed for a heatwave and he had to go to trial."

Danny's amused smile lightens his mood considerably. He was being given a chance. That's a nice change of pace. So, a tad more confident, he gestures to Batman. "Could you be more specific?"

Without preamble or hesitation, the ghost hero is faced with the first big instance of kidnapping: the mayor. Because yes, there are unfortunately more than one accusation of kidnapping against him. "The mayor's possessed in that picture. It's black and white, so I can't prove it with the color of his eyes. And I don't know if you can tell, but I'm kind of struggling there. I was just coming to my senses and then I was being held."

His explanation isn't great, especially since most of it can't be backed by anything other than his and the media's word.

Red Robin doesn't seem to care about that, however, and focuses on another ambiguity of the story. "But why? What was gained from any of this?"

Danny rolls his eyes, suddenly exasperated. "I'd just started being seen by the people of Amity Park when this thing happened, but I'd been around much longer. While in the Ghost Zone a couple weeks before, I'd wandered into Walker's territory. He's a Warden and his area is a prison that he keeps criminals in. I was sentenced to… a thousand years, I think? Anyway, I broke out because… Well…" Danny chuckles to himself. "Who wouldn't? It's a thousand years. So-"

"What were you charged with?" Batman interrupts, voice hard and unamused.

"Bringing a real world item into the Ghost Zone. Which wasn't even me in the first place. I was retrieving it." Danny pauses to check if that answer was suitable for the other heroes before continuing with his original story. "Anyway, this whole thing was a plot to bring me back to the prison, but I wasn't havin' that, so Walker changed his plan. He knew I was new to this town and the first ghost so far that wasn't attacking everything on sight, so he decided to turn them all against me while their opinion was still unformed. I think what he said was, 'now you'll be a prisoner by the very people you aim to protect', or something equally dramatic. It worked for a long time, too. Freaking annoying. Next?"

While the heroes each obviously have their own questions, Batman agrees with the younger hero and brings up the next collection of articles, this time highlighting Phantom's brief robbery spree. It seems they were bringing up the more serious threats first, which Danny was okay with. They were the ones that were harder to explain and he'd rather get them out of the way.

Danny winces. "Right. So, this one is gonna be a little harder to explain. See, that is me, but I'm being controlled. Again, I can't _really _prove it, because there's no evidence, and-"

"Don't worry about evidence," Nightwing interjects. "All the stolen items were returned and there was a criminal convicted with the charge of these crimes. Just explain what happened."

Danny nods to himself, much more comfortable now that he knew he didn't have to prove it wasn't actually him. "It happened when this gothic circus came into town," he began, shifting his position in the air so he's sitting cross-legged. "I started feeling weird, doing things without really thinking about them and zoning out. I don't remember a whole lot from the time I was actually being controlled. It was like there was this haze of red and everything was coming to me distantly, like underwater, I guess. I only remember a couple things for certain, like saving Sam when I, um… cut the tightrope."

The other heroes don't challenge the uncomfortable ghost further, simply waiting for him to continue.

"And then there was another time when she fell off a train. It was like even if I understood what my body was doing, I couldn't fight against the mist, but when I saw Sam falling I could get through it for just long enough to save her. That second time, the device that was controlling me- the staff-fell with Sam and smashed against the ground. Then I turned in the ringmaster."

Like before, Batman doesn't respond, simply bringing up the next collection of newspaper articles. This one includes a lot about Valerie Gray and her father, detailing Phantom's break in and attacks on the Gray family.

Danny sighs, defeated. "I didn't try to do all that, but I should've been able to stop that ghost. It was this dog that was going through a rampage to find its old kennel, and I tried to keep him in the Ghost Zone or train him but he kept destroying anyway. I still feel bad but… I don't know. There's not really anything I could do."

"Is that all you've done concerning the Grays?" Batman asks.

The question catches the ghost off guard, as Batman had yet to need more information than Danny had already given. "I mean, it's not my only time interacting with them, if that's what you mean?"

Batman enlarges one of the articles for Danny to study. It documents the repeated attacks on Valerie and details several instances that Danny doesn't recall.

He waves them off. "Not true. I don't attack her. She actually attacks me, but she's just a civilian; I've never hurt her back."

"Is this confirmation that she is the Red Huntress?" Red Robin adds.

Danny feels another smile pull at his lips, a small laugh soon following. "Yeah. Sorry, I don't mean to laugh. It's just, I already outed her to her father because she wanted to run into this huge ghost battle completely unprepared and ever since she's blamed me for all her problems."

Red Robin, if he wasn't so stoic, might've displayed a bit of surprise at this new information. "You unmasked her?"

The ghost hero folds his arms and turns his head in indignation. "It was an entire army that she'd been pawned into drawing to Amity Park. There was no way I was going to let her do that. Besides. She kept hurting herself. So yeah, I unmasked her to her dad."

Batman swept the discussion along. Danny determined truth from rumor as the newspaper articles went by on the holo-screen, occasionally explaining why the press blamed that on him or owning up to what had happened (this was mostly property damage). Despite the intense questioning, Danny felt himself relaxing and his confidence return. The heroes were accepting his explanations and he could feel himself being painted in a far more positive light.

After nearly two hours of this, Batman closes the screen and stands from his seat. "We will discuss this again. For now, you are dismissed." Danny unfolds his legs, prepared to leave, but Batman leaves ahead of him, leaving the ghost with four other heroes.

Danny tilts his head in question. "Am I-" He gestures after Batman.

Nightwing smiles ruefully. "Just a moment. I know you're tired, but we have a couple more things to go over."

Danny gestures for him to go on.

"The MotherBox I lent you. I'm willing to let you continue borrowing it for the time being, but since they are rare and incredibly valuable, I hope you don't mind if we trace it."

"And we'd prefer if you kept it on you at all times," Miss Martian adds before Danny can either agree or protest. "Not to keep track of you, just so you can keep her safe."

They pause, waiting for Danny's response expectantly. It seems reasonable enough. Besides, even if they did use it to track him at all hours of the day, it's not like they'd be able to piece together his identity, right? I mean, if they were really looking, maybe they'd realize he tended to hang out around the school and FentonWorks a lot, but that could easily be explained away. "Sure," he decides at last.

"Speaking of the MotherBox, though," Nightwing wonders, gesturing at the ghost's uniform, "where is she now?"

"Oh. Uh…"

Where the MotherBox is now is actually a funny story. When Danny had retold the events of yesterday to Tucker this morning, he'd pulled out the MotherBox for Tucker to examine when the techie had asked. What followed was a rave about the ancient tech that Tucker had only read about on what he called the "white dark net," where white hat hackers shared or traded confidential information.

"The MotherBox," the red-capped teen had raved, eyes shining behind his glasses in delight, "isn't just technology. It's a living, breathing thing! She, sorry. The MotherBoxes are supposed to be made by some sort of superior race where technology is just as human as they are! Of course, not much is known about these Boxes since the heroes usually keep this kind of stuff on the downlow and the villains aren't exactly chatty, well, not like ours. But, if I'm not mistaken…"

What followed was a long string of high tech jargon that was almost entirely lost on the astronomy-focused teen, but one certain concept seemed to catch his attention.

"Compatibility grafting?" Danny had asked, suddenly jumping back into the one-sided conversation. Tucker, while slightly put out by the other teen's interruption, allowed his friend to continue. "Like, into my skin?"

Tucker had rolled his eyes. "No. Don't be ridiculous. MotherBoxes aren't organically compatible."

"I'm only half organic," Danny had chastised him, taking the MotherBox from his hands and examining the surface. "So I wonder." He transformed in a flash of light, cradling the technology in his now gloved hands.

Tucker, now intrigued, snatched the MotherBox back. "It grafts for information transfer," he lectured, "but if you're not organic, maybe you would be compatible for her sensors." Holding the MotherBox to Danny's upper arm, Tucker commanded in a clear voice, "Scan for compatibility efficy."

Danny had raised an eyebrow at Tucker, silently teasing his vocabulary, but his attention quickly turned to the MotherBox, which had begun beeping in low tones. Tucker startled back when the MotherBox suddenly sunk into Danny's skin as if he'd gone intangible, disappearing into the hazmat suit.

They exchanged shocked glances. "Did we kill her?" Tucker whispers, horrified.

Strangely enough, Danny could now feel the MotherBox near his core, almost like when he could vaguely sense objects while he was intangible. It reminded him of the time Dark Dan had shoved a Time Medallion into his chest. It was far less unsettling this time, however, because the MotherBox seemed to have grafted into the ectoplasm seamlessly, rather than being shoved inside.

"I don't think so," Danny had responded, still a little shell-shocked. "MotherBox?" Danny had felt dumb addressing the machine, even though he'd asked things of it before and it had responded. "Can you hear me?"

Tucker looked at his friend as if he were the most ignorant human to exist, but Danny felt three deep tones resonate from his core. Ignoring Tucker, Danny broached again, "Can you ungraft?"

It turned out that the MotherBox could, and after a few experiments and discussions on the implications of ectoplasm being MotherBox compatible, the two boys had decided that was a safe place for the technology. Traci (as Tucker had dubbed her) is priceless, and it would probably be best if Danny didn't just wear her on his belt for anyone to take or destroy.

Now, in the present, Danny simply smiled sheepishly at the four heroes. "It's kinda weird, but we found out that Traci is compatible with what I'm made of and she's kind of… in me?" Danny chuckles awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"In you?" Nightwing demands, though more out of surprise than disapproval.

"Traci?" Miss Martian, on the other hand, was amused.

"We?" is all Red Robin asks.

"Sorry," Danny rushes, rapidly growing more embarrassed, "I know it's weird, and yeah, Tucker's my friend and he knew a little about the MotherBoxes and he likes to name things and anyway." Blushing furiously, Danny turns his attention to the MotherBox. "Um. Traci?"

In response to his unspoken command, the MotherBox phases out of Danny's core and he holds his hand to his chest, coming back with the MotherBox in his palm. He sheepishly glances over to the superheroes, fearing their disgust, but is instead greeted with their fascination.

Nightwing in particular looks delighted, going so casual as to laugh outright. Danny, still fumbling with the sheer embarrassment of the situation, glances at him anxiously. "She responds," Nightwing says by way of explanation. "I don't think another MotherBox has even been named."

Miss Martian floats closer to Danny, holding her hand out expectantly. Danny hands Traci over to her, mumbling an apology. After a moment of glowing eyes, Miss Martian hands the MotherBox back to the ghost, her smile splitting her face in two. "She recognizes herself as both MotherBox and Traci now." She sounds delighted. "I'm glad you two have bonded."

"Sorry, I know she's priceless, and that's kinda why this made sense, so she wouldn't get damaged or stolen, but I can give her back, I don't want to take anything from you guys…"

Tigress silences his ramblings by stepping forward, locking eyes with him. "MotherBoxes are powerful tools, but they're also sentient beings. If you two enjoy each other's company, we won't be the ones to separate you two."

Miss Martian adds, "Superboy bonded with another New Genesis creation, which he named Sphere. You're not the first."

Danny mutters another thanks, still off-kilter, and holds Traci to his chest again, letting her re-integrate into his body. She let out a few fluctuating tones, and while Danny didn't understand the beeping language and couldn't explain how he knew, he felt like she was laughing at him.

"Next," Nightwing exclaims, presenting a much more casual side to the previously firm hero. "What's your schedule like tomorrow?"

After mentally scanning his disorganized schedule, Danny decides there isn't much and tells them so, tacking on a warning that ghost attacks are random and that might change.

"Well, assuming that doesn't happen, how's ten for some training? The senior members of the team would like to assess your abilities so we can get a feel of how you'd fit in."

Danny smiles genuinely at this. "That sounds fun. I love training."

Tigress smirks. "That's a new one."

"Well," Danny relents, "Training with my friends, which I'll admit wasn't always the most productive."

They spare Danny the lecture, figuring tomorrow's training would be punishment enough.

"Finally, we'd like to ask you to try to persuade Sam to take training," Tigress broaches, wary of the ghost's opposition.

Danny simply shrugs. "I can't much make Sam do anything, but if I had to guess, she's probably already decided to do it. Seems like it'd be her kind of thing."

"We'll wait for her to formally accept before we inform Zatanna and Doctor Fate, then." Nightwing claps his hands with a smile, smile friendly. "Well, that was much easier than I expected. With the interactions Red Robin had with Sam, I was worried we'd be arguing with you for hours." His tone is playful, so Danny decides not to take offense, for himself or his absent girlfriend.

"She just likes to argue everything. She gets snappy and all, but she's one of the best people I know."

Miss Martian grins. "Then we're glad to have you both."

"Alright then!" Danny unfolds his legs and floats towards the door. "With that, I'm going to get going and find my lovely goth human for a few hours, and I'll meet you tomorrow at ten."

Nightwing waves a farewell and Danny phases out the door. He floats a couple yards down before Traci pings in his chest, causing him to pause. Glancing around, Danny tries to see what she alerted him for but found nothing.

Just as he begins to move again, a glowing girl-Halo, if Danny remembers correctly from the night she helped retrieve him-rounds the corner, eyes downcast. Danny floats hesitantly in the air for a moment, Traci seeming to urge him into patience, as the darker skinned girl passes.

Danny glances back at her, still bemused by Traci's reaction. Halo, before she'd even floated three feet, perks up her head and tenses. Turning slowly, she searches the ghost boy with her eyes before meeting his gaze. Traci beeps once more, and the yellow-aura-ed superhero inclines her head.

"I can hear MotherBox, but I am not seeing her," she mutters, half to herself.

Danny pats his chest in response, and her gaze travels there, eyes glowing a bright, ominous yellow.

"She has grafted," she answers herself. She inclines her head to Danny with a soft, sad smile. "She likes you."

Without another word, she faces the opposite direction and continues down the hall. "Uh… Thanks?" Danny calls to her receding form.

A little put out and a lot bewildered, Danny floats off once more, vaguely in the direction of Sam's room. After he's stopped once more by two more superhero boys, one a speedster that fired off a dozen questions and comments before Danny politely excused himself, the ghostly hero opts to search for his girlfriend invisibly to avoid anymore social encounters.

He finds her angrily doing pushups in her room, muttering darkly to herself between grunts. Danny musters his emotional energy and contorts his floating body so that his upside down face becomes level with Sam's line of sight. Then, he drops his invisibility, plastering a dopey smile on his face. "I'm back~"

Sam scowls at him, finishing off a few more pushups before drawing herself up from the floor and sitting on the bed with a glare. "Hey."

Danny rights himself, grin melting into a concerned frown. "Are you mad at me?"

"No," Sam snaps, eyes flashing dangerously before she visibly calms herself. "Sorry. I'm just frustrated at…" She waves her hands haphazardly, almost smacking Danny. "Everything."

"I'm sorry. Want to talk about it?"

"No. I'm sick of it. Let's talk about something else. Something that has nothing to do with the past two days or months or whatever." Sam pushes herself to the back of the bed, propping up her pillow and stretching out her legs.

"Trying to force the conversation?" Danny teases lightly, settling down on the edge of the bed and dropping his flight. "Cuz I got nothing."

"Useless," Sam insults in stride, kicking her heel at Danny's folded legs. "Tell me about today."

Danny recounts his day animatedly, trying to novelize the irritating and somewhat mundane fights he'd gotten into throughout the early morning hours. They talk for a while on the new hunk of technology sitting in his core, which slowly transitions into what they planned on keeping from the heroes.

Uncomfortable, Danny shrugs. "I'm not a huge fan at just throwing my secrets at them, but I don't want to cause problems for you so it's your call."

"It's none of their business," Sam sniffs. "I say they don't get to know anything."

"Fine by me. And you?"

Sam's expression darkens. "Same. None of their business. Let them think I'm evil or something for all I care."

Danny tries to turn the conversation into something more teasing again. "You do have a history, Miss Caretaker of Plants."

"Shut up. I was possessed." She sulks at the wall while Danny rummages up a response, cutting him off just as he was about to tease her again. "Whatever. I don't feel like talking anymore. Let's do something else."

"Like what?" Danny props one of his ankles on his knee, turning it around in a circle lazily. When Sam doesn't respond, Danny glances up at her, eyebrows raised.

With a predatory grin, Sam pounces on Danny, tugging him towards her. Danny activates his flight, refusing to let her take him, so in one fluid motion, Sam changes tactics and shoves him bodily off the bed, surprising him into losing his flight and falling in a heap on the ground. Popping his head over the edge of the bed, Danny grins at Sam with a delighted grin. They're wrestling now? He can live with that.

Danny launches at Sam without a plan in mind, pushing her over onto the mattress in a clumsy heap. Sam laughs, looping her arms around Danny's neck and pulling him into a tight hug. Danny accepts the change in stride, wrapping his arms tightly around his girlfriend and squeezing her right around the middle.

Sam leans back, giving her enough space to briefly make contact with Danny's lips before he can open his eyes. It's so quick Danny doesn't have the time to reciprocate, but it's affectionate all the same and Danny feels his entire face heat up. Sam leans her forehead against his, giggling to herself almost silently.

"What's so funny?" Danny asks.

"You're blushing," Sam replies.

Danny stammers, only managing to make his blush even more prominent. "I am not!" he denies anyway, trying to salvage his pride. Sam's arms tighten around his neck to keep him from floating away in embarrassment, only laughing harder as he weakly struggled.

Danny isn't too miffed, though; Sam's laughter was worth any wound to his pride.

* * *

**Here y'all are. One thing I want to comment on: the MotherBox in Danny was something I just kind of wrote. I had no plans for it before I began writing but as soon as I wrote it I came up with a whole new concept that would be able to wrap a lot of the elements of YJ season 3 into the story. This chapter was very Danny-heavy, and the next will probably have a lot of both Sam and Danny. Let me know what y'all are thinking cuz a lot of my writing decisions come off of how my chapters are received. Thank you for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

"Magic," Zatanna begins, her top hat held between her thumb and forefinger, slanted so I can see to the bottom of the hat, "is energy." She tilts the hat back up and circles her magician's wand twice around the rim, ending with a tap that is immediately followed by an eruption of colorful sparks. "It's a science, albeit a different kind." Her wand disappears in a puff of smoke, and she reaches her hand inside the previously empty hat to grasp something inside. "There are rules that account for every part of it: what it can do, who can wield it, how it can be shaped." She withdraws a bunny by its ears, a classic white rabbit with a pink nose and wavering whiskers that bounce along to its sniffing.

"For instance, you could clearly see that there was nothing in the hat. While it's true I use many cheap tricks in my magician's career, this-" she holds the bunny higher "was done through magic. How do you think I did it?"

"I'm guessing you didn't create it, because magic can't do that," Sam responds easily, recalling the details of the numerous fantasy novels in her bookshelf at home. Zatanna nods, prompting Sam to go on. "So I guess you could always… have a bunny farm at your house that you just create a portal to or something."

Zatanna shakes her head, dropping the bunny back in the hat and flicking her wrist to send the hat into the air. It lands soundly on her head. "Close, but not quite. The hat is actually already enchanted. That's why it wasn't necessary for me to speak in order to call out the rabbit." Her wand suddenly reappearing in her hand, she taps it to her hat. "This hat contains pocket dimensions, to put it simply. I have quite a few. Some are for my tricks as a magician, like the bunnies. Some hold magical artifacts or ingredients. And some are dungeons. One stems from chaos energy. I'm told it looks much like a labyrinth."

"Where are these pocket dimensions?" Sam asks, looking up from her notebook, where she'd been dotting down some notes. Zatanna had suggested it when they began the lesson but also mentioned they probably wouldn't get past a feel for the energy that day. Still, Sam found herself completely enchanted by the lesson, even though it had just barely begun.

Zatanna shrugs. "There's plenty of speculation, of course, but no one knows for sure. Personally, I think they're just predetermined energies that exist in the hat. Like a video game program. When someone gets sucked into the hat, they turn into code that interacts with the programming."

"That makes sense," Sam assures her, still scribbling notes on the paper.

"Anyway," Zatanna continues, turning the topic back around. "The point of showing you my hat is to give you an example of how magical energy can be transformed. Magical energy is a lot like sound or light; it can exist almost anywhere. In fact, you might think of it as a kind of light that only specific people can see."

"I thought it would be more of a feeling," Sam interrupts, again basing her magical knowledge on storybooks and fairytales.

"It's different for everyone." Zatanna pauses, tilting her head almost as if she can hear something Sam can't. "It also varies based on the type of magic." Before Sam can reply, Zatanna grins and quickly speaks again. "That's what we're going to focus on first. Regardless of how an individual's magic works, or how strong it is, if you have an affinity for magic, you can sense it. I must warn you, you will not be using magic for a long time, until you've mastered all the basics. Even then, it requires rigorous study and training. Even after all of that, we still have to figure out your conflicting energies. It's likely you'll become very frustrated."

Sam nods seriously.

Zatanna doesn't look convinced. "Magic takes incredible dedication and study. It does not come easy, unlike a lot of powers that the League uses. I need you to understand that attempting magic before you are ready-before _I_ say you are ready-will not end well. Are you prepared to accept my judgement?"

Sam nods again.

"I need you to say so out loud. In magic, words are binding."

Not understanding Zatanna's conviction to making her promise, Sam reluctantly repeats her promise to the gorgeous magician. There's a prickle on her skin, a sudden waft of something nature-smelling, and Sam realizes this is the feeling of her words binding her. Still, she feels instinctually that the bind is not very strong and will likely not stop her from breaking it. Sam assumes it does something, but while she could vaguely anticipate the strength of the magic through the potency of its scent, she cannot guess anymore about it.

Zatanna smiles. "Did you feel something?"

Sam returns her smile. "A little. Maybe a scent."

She nods. "Spoken binds tend to be heard, rather than felt or smelt." At Sam's concerned frown, the magician hurries to correct herself. "Not that that's a problem. It only means that's how you perceive that spell."

"Oh, okay," Sam mutters, unsure of how to respond.

"That's what we'll work on today: sensing magical energy."

"We don't need to go through anymore theory or anything?"

Zatanna chuckles, eyeing Sam's half-filled notebook page with amusement. "No, not today. Without any context, the information won't make any sense." Zatanna flicked her wand, causing it to disappear in a puff of smoke. "Don't get me wrong, magic takes a ton of study, but the basics are actually pretty simple."

Sam nods along, shutting her notebook and threading her pen through the spirals. "Alright then. Let's get started."

Zatanna grins. "I like your enthusiasm. First, get in a comfortable position. You'll be sitting here for a while."

After Sam had settled into a cross-legged position, Zatanna summons two books directly in front of the goth. "One of these books is a powerful grimoire. The other is a cookbook. Choose which one you can sense the magic from."

Sam studies the two purple-backed covers. Both had a scribble of unintelligible characters in the covers, completely senseless to Sam's English-accustomed eyes.

Okay, the magic isn't something she can see. Sam leans forward, sniffing the books. At first, nothing seems to smell off, but Sam's mind wanders to the whiff of nature she'd smelled when the promise had been made. It had felt like a smell that wafted in the wind, there one sniff and gone the next.

And suddenly, Sam's next breath was accompanied with a strong, acrid smell. Wrinkling her nose, Sam glances at the book on the left. At her reaction, Zatanna grins widely. "Well done."

After a brief exchange about how she'd sensed it and Zatanna's commentary on it, the objects were replaced with two candelabras.

The instruction continued for the next hour, Sam getting increasingly attuned to the feeling of magic. Zatanna insisted after the first few that the goth girl should attempt to sense the magic without her sense of smell. This instruction was followed with twenty minutes of frustration as Sam tried to see, hear, or feel that magic from three necklaces. At Zatanna's suggestion, Sam closed her eyes and allowed herself to smell the magic without pinpointing where it came from.

Eventually, the smell faded from her awareness. Still, she knew where it had come from. When she had pointed at the correct item, Zatanna had clapped in delight.

Sam was so concentrated on her studies she failed to notice when Danny came in for training. He was immediately asked to clarify all of the rumors regarding his powers and demonstrate each under the scrutiny of the senior team members. After they were satisfied for the time being, he was next incorporated into a sparring session under Black Canary's instruction, where he was instantly torn apart for his unorthodox fighting style.

All this was gone unnoticed by the goth girl in the corner, who had opted to close her eyes to better feel the magic. She progressed much faster than Zatanna had anticipated and she began testing Sam's ability to sense which object had stronger magic. As training came to a close for the ghost, Zatanna too announced their lesson over, much to Sam's disappointment.

"Is there something I can do to practice until tomorrow?" Sam asks eagerly, to the older magician's amusement.

"No, not particularly. This training exercise must be done with another magician. I can give you some books instead, if you'd like."

Sam nods with enthusiasm, which the older magician rewards with a smile and three conjured books. Thanking her empathetically, Sam begins skimming the titles. One is on the history of magicians, the other an introductory book of magic items, and the last a theory book about basic magic.

"Don't wear yourself out too much, though," Zatanna warns with a grin. "And make sure you go get some food."

Sam mutters an affirmative, already flipping through the first book.

"Hey, Sam," greets Danny, not a minute later. Sam's head jerks up, surprised, before throwing him a grin. He must've been floating around waiting for her to finish. "Hungry?"

She hadn't been before, but now that he asked she realized she was ravenous. "I could eat," she allows offhandedly, climbing to her feet with a bit of difficulty. She takes a moment to stretch out her sore legs before heading off in the direction of her room. Danny swoops in to take her books from her, though Sam snatches the top one so she can flip through it as she walks.

They walk in silence as Sam skims the introduction of the book, delighting in all the elements that are briefly mentioned. As soon as the two drop off the books, Danny nudges his shoulder into hers, smiling. "I take it you're feeling a bit better?"

"Magic's pretty interesting," Sam allows, struggling to maintain her goth exterior and force her smile into an indifferent scowl. Danny only chuckles at her fondly. "Did you see? I only messed up a couple times, and Zatanna says I'm progressing fast already."

"I tried to watch when I could, but training was pretty rough," he replies nonchalantly.

Sam raises her eyebrows. "Really? What went on?"

As he was beginning to reply, they entered the cafeteria, where Sam immediately spotted Cassie and waved a greeting. Danny's sentence fizzles out as Sam beckons the blonde over, but the goth doesn't really notice.

"I saw you picking up sensing pretty fast," Cass praises as she approaches. Sam delights in her observation and instantly delves into a long explanation of the things she learned from Zatanna and her own exploration. The three gather their meal and go to a table to eat, Cass by herself across from the other two.

Before any of them can dig into their food, Red Robin approaches from behind Cassie and sits beside her, setting down his own tray. Sam eyes him warily, but Cassie doesn't seem to mind, merely flashing Red Robin a brief smile and digging into her food.

"So…" Sam draws out, gaining both of the couple's attention. "Did you guys, like… make up?"

Red Robin shrugs and Cassie just mutters "eh" around her fork. Sam eyes them suspiciously but Danny simply digs into his taco, not as interested as Sam in the other's relationship.

"Ghosts eat?" the Boy Wonder asks the other male hero, who only glares at him over his food, chewing aggressively.

Danny swallows. "I am hungry, and so I am eating." He then proves it by taking another bite.

Red Robin only tilts his head at his antics.

The two girls begin to chat again, leaving the boys to simply stare at each other. Danny's forced irritation breaks after only a few minutes, at a loss of how to enter the conversation the girls were having on magic.

"So… are all the Bats related or something?"

"No," he answers shortly.

Danny rolls his eyes.

When he doesn't say anything more, Red Robin adds, almost as an afterthought, "Not related, but we are pretty close." Danny narrows his eyes, not trusting his sudden elaboration. He doesn't have to wait long for the catch. "Are you close with any ghosts?"

Danny aggressively bites into a dinner roll.

"Don't hold the questioning against him," Cassie interjects, finally paying attention to her boyfriend and his reluctant conversation partner. "It's how he was trained. Say nothing but know everything."

The ghost doesn't look impressed. "What if I'm simply private because… I don't want people to know? Is that really nonexistent in your world?"

Cass shrugs while Red Robin bluntly says "no."

"Secrets are supposed to stay dead," the ghost hero mutters, staring forlornly at his roll before biting into it again.

Sam redirects the conversation again, leaving her boyfriend to brood. Several minutes later, before Red Robin can successfully bring Danny back into the conversation, an alert pings on both Cassie and her boyfriend's phones. "Oh, gotta run," Cassie tells Sam, pushing out her chair alongside Robin's. "Mission."

The two dash off, leaving their trays behind. Danny notices that Red Robin hadn't even touched his.

"Well, want to go back to my room?" Sam suggests, nudging Danny. He nods, following after her. As they walk, Sam asks, "What's Jazz doing for the summer?"

"She has a mock trial next week that she's been preparing for ever since the spring semester ended, but after that she should be heading back home."

Sam doesn't notice the dull tone in his response. "And Valerie?"

"Her dad took her to Florida for the summer, to get her mind off of ghost hunting and whatnot."

"Ugh, hate Florida. Too much sun."

Danny shoots her a wry grin. "You seem to be doing better."

She shrugs. "The magic is a nice distraction. I'm sure I'll freak out about this stuff plenty, but for right now, I just want to read."

Which is what she did. When they got back to her room Sam kicked off her shoes and climbed into bed, Danny settling down next to her. She completely immersed herself in the factual book, commenting on certain interesting facts as she came to them, which Danny only nodded along to. Sam could get really focused when she was interested in what she was doing, and before long, everything else faded away.

She didn't notice Danny shift restlessly, or his desperate attempts to normalize his breathing, or his intense fidgeting that began with his thumbs before quickly spreading to all his fingers. Eventually, Danny rose from the bed, muttering a quick "gotta go" to his absorbed girlfriend, which she only hummed in response to.

He left, feeling like a jittery, nervous wreck.

If Sam had listened to his answer when she'd asked about training, she would know he had been held to a professional level. That was good, and Danny knew he would get better from the harsh corrections, but he still felt like a failure in front of all the other heroes. He felt like all their eyes were on him. He could feel their judgements, their questions.

And then Sam had talked over him, making no attempts to draw him into the conversation. He felt awful, like he'd done something to her, but she wasn't acting angry. He felt unneeded, unwanted. He felt like he was drowning.

And if Sam had remembered that giving Danny time to sit still and think was only an invitation for him to overthink things into a panic, she wouldn't have all but ignored him for an hour and a half as she read.

Danny let out a shaky breath, desperately threading his fingers into his hair and tugging on them until it hurt. The pain made him feel a bit more centered, but it also made him feel more real, more panicked.

"Hey, you okay?"

Danny pried his eyes open to see Red Robin (who else, if not his stalker?) standing in front of him, arm outstretched as if to lay a hand on his shoulder. The ghost's gaze flickered from his arm to the hero's face before hurrying to push himself off the wall and yank his fingers free from his hair. "Fine," he was quick to respond, answer too fast and sharp to be the truth.

"You can talk to me."

Danny glares at the boy, his panic momentarily transforming into irritation. "Yeah, I definitely know that. I can spill everything to you, so that it can go in my file or so you can manipulate me or whatever else you want with my information so badly!"

"Calm down," the red hero attempts to placate, but Danny only scoffs and rolls his eyes, shrugging off the hand that had finally made its way to his shoulder.

"I'm perfectly calm," Danny spits back, backing away, "or at least, I will be. Don't worry, I'm not going to be a danger to your team."

With that, Danny muttered a command for home and darted through the opening that Traci created, resolutely not looking back at the other hero. _Let him wonder_, Danny sneered in his head. _Since he apparently has nothing better to do._ However, Red Robin's appearance only caused more doubts to fill his head, fantasies springing up of Red Robin kicking him off the team for emotional instability. The following panic would not fade for hours, and because of his perceived annoyance to Sam and his sister living in another state, the teenager endured it alone, arms wrapped around his knees and his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

Red Robin, however, was not entertaining doubts about the ghost hero's performance. He of all people knew that certain heroes could fight through their own issues in order to save the world. That was why he stood with a concerned frown on his face. He, of all people, knew how dangerous that ideal could eventually be.

The Boy Wonder began to formulate a plan.

* * *

**Hey, I'm back after a hot second. Sorry if it looks like it's getting a little angsty... I do intend for Danny's anxiety to become a more prevalent theme in this story, as well as Sam's shortcomings. Don't worry, I do plan on resolving it, but I need an outlet for my own insecurities so I'm basically just projecting them onto Danny. They're coming out pretty well, I'd think. **

**Anyway, the more you review, the more excited I am for the story. Please let me know what you think so I may adjust accordingly. Until next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

Sam doesn't worry when Danny doesn't show up the next day. He wasn't scheduled to anyway; training is optional every other day for him. Instead of wondering about her boyfriend, Sam throws herself into her studies, relaying all she had read to Zatanna and eagerly taking notes on her lesson for that day.

When that day's lesson was over and Sam had eaten lunch, again with Cassie, she accepted a tour of the WatchTower in order to kill time. The view of the Earth and the surrounding space took her breath away, and she found herself promising to show Danny later. Speaking of which… she now wondered where he was off to.

She didn't wonder long. He must have something with his parents today. When Cassie was pulled away again, Sam went to the training room for a run on the treadmill before settling into studying once more. The day had felt blissfully normal, almost, and Sam was feeling relaxed and content. She briefly wished Danny were there to celebrate her good mood with, but she quickly brushed it off, refusing to let her thoughts linger on a boy.

The next day Danny did show up for training, but Sam was off doing her own at that point so she didn't ask him why he hadn't been there the day before. Zatanna was now having Sam sense the energies within herself, seeing as she had surpassed the first level of merely identifying magicks. This was far more complicated and resulted in hours of meditation that yielded very little, much to Sam's frustration.

Zatanna had ended the lesson when Sam's frustration began interfering with her meditation, suggesting they take it up the next day. Sam had brought her food to her room, Danny trailing along behind her, and had spent the lunch raving to Danny about how frustrating her magic training was that day.

The angrier she got, the more she ranted, and the more topics she started ranting about, and suddenly she was sobbing in frustration and anger and despair. Danny, her best friend, her boyfriend, had pulled her into a tight hug and allowed her to cry into his shoulder, soothing her with a low voice and a gentle gloved hand in her hair. She couldn't help but revel in the safety he exuded, despite the small voice in her head that whispered at how cliche she was being.

She had eventually stopped crying and pretended to fall asleep to avoid anymore talking. Danny slipped her into the covers with his intangibility, tucking her in gently, and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. She heard him take her dinner tray and leave, dimming the lights even more behind him.

_I love him_, Sam thought to herself. Of course, she had loved him since she was twelve, before she even knew what love was, but it was times like these that it really hit her. She whispered it out loud to herself, just to feel giddy, before rolling over and falling asleep, exhausted mentally from everything that had happened that day.

When Danny dropped off her dinner tray in the kitchen, Red Robin noticed the dried tears on Danny's neck and how he dropped off Sam's meal and filed the information away without a word.

The next few days took on a similar pattern. Danny would show up for practice while Sam meditated and worked on his fighting technique with Black Canary until his mental energy was exhausted. Then he would go to Sam or leave for Amity Park. Sam showed him the view of space from the WatchTower, and the ghost had incorporated stargazing into his daily routine without hesitation.

When it became obvious that the ghost was avoiding the members of the Team-Red Robin most of all-Nightwing set a new mandatory training for the ghost the following evening. Upon Red Robin's suggestion, the graduated Robin solicited Zatanna into offering Sam another magic training session, which the goth readily accepted. Red Robin's reasoning was that the ghost hero was so concerned over the goth's well-being that he went completely submissive in her presence. He wanted to see the other hero's interactions without her.

That next evening, Danny arrived for training fifteen minutes early to stop by Sam's room, which was empty. Sam had not alerted Danny to her change in schedule, so Danny's anxiety spiked.

Red Robin, however, had anticipated the ghost's intentions and conveniently walks by when the ghost leaves Sam's room. He sees Phantom's tense expression and informs him that "Zatanna took Sam for more training tonight."

The ghost's expression relaxes at this and he offers a small smile. "Oh, cool. Are you going to the training room?"

"Training's in the den tonight," Red Robin responds without stopping. The ghost floats behind him with a quizzical expression.

"What training are we doing there?"

"Trust building."

The ghost's expression becomes skeptical. "And this is _mandatory_?"

Red Robin doesn't dignify that with a response. Still, the ghost continues to follow him despite his now obvious reluctance.

"What are we going to do?"

Red Robin doesn't answer that one either. In truth, trust building exercises are largely unstructured. The senior members want to see them grow closer as people, not heroes. Still, with the new invitee, some of the more secretive members of the team had opted to stay masked rather than change into more casual civvies, including the Boy Wonder himself.

The pair arrive at the den and the Boy Wonder leads the more hesitant hero inside, where several other heroes were already chatting. Wondergirl, despite being part of the Outsiders, had opted to come and had sat with Thirteen, Halo, and Arrowette who were deep in conversation. Orphan and Spoiler were sitting quietly by themselves on a nearby couch while Beast Boy and Blue Beetle teamed up against Kid Flash in ping pong. Even though many heroes had joined the Outsiders, they still trained with the team under the instruction of the League.

When they entered, Red Robin beckoned the boys over. After Kid Flash scores one more point, the three join the majority on the couches. Phantom hesitantly settles down a safe distance from the two quiet heroes, warily watching the other heroes.

"For Phantom's benefit, I suggest we go through introductions." Red Robin's order is short and sweet, and he follows it with a nod to Thirteen.

"My name is Traci! I'm Thirteen-the number, not the age. I'm not thirteen years old. I work with bad luck magic."

Phantom nodded at the awkward girl, smiling in acknowledgement.

Next is Halo, who's introduction is similarly energetic. "I am Halo, but my human name is Violet. I am a MotherBox inside of a human body. I can speak to all MotherBoxes." She's polite, and energetic, but there's a certain hesitance around her that seems to be dampening her spirits.

"I'm Cass, but you already know me."

With that, it moved right along to Kid Flash, who waved at the ghost. "I'm Kid Flash, but you can call me Bart. Or KF, Kid, Red, Ginger, whatever you like. I'm the Flash's grandson from the future."

Phantom looked like he wanted to ask about that, but Blue Beetle jumped in before he could. "My name is Jaime. _Hola_."

The ghost began to become overwhelmed with names, but the next person went on anyway. This one is easily recognizable to the ghost, being a popular TV star that he and Tucker liked to watch at times. "You can call me Gar. Beast Boy."

At least Danny wouldn't have to remember that one. "I'm Spoiler! Sorry, but my real name's classified."

"Orphan." Is the final, blunt introduction.

Phantom chuckles, glancing at all of them as he rubs the back of his head. "Yeah, I may or may not remember any of those…" While it was true he could name most of the superheroes from seeing them around training, the real names were something different.

"It's fine," Cassie scoffs, smiling. "Why don't you introduce yourself?"

"I'm Phantom, as you all probably already know. I live-or rather don't live-in Amity Park, Illinois." He gets a few chuckles from the more flamboyant heroes and concerned frowns from the more reserved ones. "I don't really know what else you guys want to know beyond that though."

Apparently sensing an invitation from the ghost to ask questions, several of the heroes do just that, all except for Red Robin, Orphan, and Cass. Suddenly assaulted, Danny edges back in his seat, eyes darting from person to person. He got the gist of what they wanted to know: how he died, his history, his life before he became a ghost, what the Ghost Zone was like, and technicalities of powers and physiology. Basically everything he couldn't/didn't want to explain.

"Um- I- Am going to utilize my invisibility…"

With that awkward declaration, Danny did just that, disappearing from their vision.

Red Robin sighed silently, holding up a hand to get the heroes' attention. "Keep your questions to yourself. Phantom isn't comfortable answering most questions."

"Besides!" Cass interjects, grinning. "This isn't just about getting to know Phantom! He needs to get to know us, too. And I know just the solution!" Spreading her arms wide, Cass's expression turns notably more devious. "Who's up for a game of Truth or Dare?"

The reactions are diverse, ranging from confusion to enthusiasm to wariness, but Cass is not deterred, even when Beast Boy asks, "Is that the best idea, Cassie?"

"It's a great idea," Red Robin interjects, much to everyone else's surprise. "Some ground rules need to be set, for certain topics. No unmasking, no mission related stuff, so on. And dares can't interfere with the League or the Team's missions. Objections?" Everyone, shocked that Red Robin had agreed with his girlfriend to play a game of Truth or Dare, presumably with _himself_ participating, were suddenly all on board for the game. "Great. Phantom, are you joining us?"

Danny sighs and flickers back into visibility, but he too is intrigued by the prospect of the game. He settles onto the couch more comfortably, soon joined by Red Robin. "Truth asked first, then the person decides to answer or choose an unknown dare. Newbie goes first."

When Red Robin juts his thumb to Danny, the ghost grins conspiratorially. "Red Robin," he chooses immediately, intent on turning the tables back on his frequent interrogator. "Most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you in the mask."

Red Robin frowns deeper, though not in anger. He contemplated choosing dare but decided to extend an olive branch and answer. "First week on patrol, Harley Quinn got the jump on me, to both our surprise. She knows as well as any other Gotham villain that kidnapping a Robin is a bad idea, especially-" He stops himself. "Anyway, instead of doing a ransom or beating me senseless, she just dressed me up in some ridiculous clown get up, makeup and all, and took a picture. Then she went underground. Didn't hear from her for another two months until we found the picture taped to the Batmobile with smiley face stickers."

Kid Flash, rather than chuckling like all the others, leans forward urgently. "Where is this picture?"

"Not your turn, but I'll answer anyway. You. Will. Never. Find. It."

"Somebody dare me to go find it!"

"No. Blue Beetle. Eighteen months ago. Mission. You came out of the shed with lipstick stains on your face, not your mask, and never explained what happened."

Jaime's face goes pale. "No, no, no, _hermanes._ I will never tell. Dare."

Red Robin smirks. "Take Cass's lipstick, put it on, and kiss Wonder Woman's hand."

His face goes bright red as the others laugh uproariously. "She'll kill me!" Red Robin only smirks smugly as Cass hands him the lipstick, which he immediately drops. "I'll answer!"

Red Robin shakes his head. "You chose dare. If you say the truth, I'll switch the person to Black Canary. Only deal."

Jaime looks for help, but everyone else looks completely on board. Finally, he steels his face. "Fine." Picking up the lipstick, he smears his lips with it. Then he sends a glare at the other hero. "I'm going to get you back for this."

Resolutely, he leaves the room. Red Robin, at the urging of both Cass and Kid Flash, pulls up the camera feeds. After he finds Wonder Woman in the observation rooms, Red Robin and the rest of the group watch the feed eagerly. Not two minutes later Blue Beetle flies in and lands in front of Wonder Woman, who offers him a greeting.

His face plate retracts and he says something that Wonder Woman looks confused by. She goes to ask something, but Jaime quickly seizes her hand and lands a kiss on the skin, leaving a smeared pink mark. Wonder Woman jerks her hand back, looking irritated and beginning to say something, but Jaime just shouts some apologies and tosses her a Klenex, leaving as fast as his wings will carry him.

The laughter hasn't died down by the time Jaime returns, red-faced and wiping at the lipstick with his shirt sleeve. "Okay, so I can never face Wonder Woman again." That only bolsters the laughter. Even Red Robin has an amused grin, though he doesn't laugh outright. "Alright _amigos,_ get ready." He sits on the couch, eyeing everyone critically, searching for the next target. Finally, his gaze rests on Arrowette. "Let's make this simple, Arrowette. Who's your crush?"

Her smirk fades into a determined frown. "Dare."

"Ah, I now see you have something to hide. But fear not, _chica_, for I have the perfect dare." His grin turns wicked. "Give Batman a hug."

Her frown deepens as the crowd "oh"s at Jaime's dare. But without complaint, she rises from her seat and strides out of the room. Once again, Red Robin finds the appropriate cam to watch as Arrowette approaches Batman, exchanges words with him, and puts her arms around him in the most awkward hug Danny had ever seen. She pats his back twice, steps back and gives Batman a curt nod, and then returns.

"Cass, guilty pleasure."

Cass goes red, but decides to answer to avoid the promising evil gleam in Arrowette's eyes. "Sometimes I read… Fanfiction." This is not enough for anyone. They stare at her as she covers her face until she adds, "Mostly about me. And Red Robin. Only sometimes though." The last bit is muttered between her hands.

"What's it rated?" Orphan asks with little inflection.

Her brightening face is all the answer they need. She then takes her revenge on Spoiler, who bypasses the truth when Cass asks who she thought was the hottest guy on the Team and accepts a dare to take a picture of Nightwing's butt. Then she surprised everyone by revealing she not only already had one of Nightwing, but also the majority of the Batfamily.

From there the stakes fluctuated greatly. Some all but forced the hero to choose dare in order to maintain their dignity, while some were as simple as asking Orphan her favorite color.

Danny was asked for the most embarrassing moment involving his crush; Beast Boy had wanted to hear something about both him and Sam. Instead the ghost told them all about the time a ghost had cursed his other best friend and the two of them had an argument inside the hottest girl in school's body. Needless to say, Beast Boy had not been expecting that.

To his surprise, Danny found himself having a blast. Only twice did the questions get uncomfortable, and both times he'd taken the dare. They were slightly less ambitious against the League, as he was new, but they were far more interesting as they fully utilized his ghost powers. One had him take a surprise selfie with Martian Manhunter, and the other had him take something from a hero. Danny had asked for directions to the spare suit room and stole Red Robin's cape, which he wore hood up with pride.

The night wore on, but the heroes were reluctant to end their game and only made the dares shorter in order to squeeze in more turns.

"Most epic thing you've ever done that you never got credit for," Spoiler asks Danny, reaching for the bowl of chips. About half an hour ago Kid Flash had gone for a snack run (which involved stealing a food item from Flash's "secret" stash as his dare).

Danny, who had been putting a Chips Ahoy cookie in between an Oreo, considers this. "Hey Red Robin, can you bring up a picture of the Wright brothers? The one after they made the plane?"

With a curious look the ghost couldn't see beneath his domino mask, Red Robin does just that. Danny floats up to the screen, pointing at the empty space between Wilber and Oliver. "I'm right there," he announces. "Ya just can't see me cuz I was invisible."

After this astounding revelation, the ghost chomps on his thick cookie monstrosity in the face of the surprised faces of the heroes.

"You were there?" Red Robin clarifies, trying to find truth to the ghost's words in the picture, though of course there was none.

"Yep. Scout's honor." Then Danny moves the conversation along by asking Thirteen the worst thing she's done to someone with her power of bad luck.

The game only goes on for another fifteen minutes, as Red Robin announces that nightly patrols would start soon and training was still in the morning. Reluctantly, the heroes began to shuffle off, making plans for next Wednesday for their next team bonding activity, which they all agreed would be Uno.

Red Robin stays behind with Danny, stopping him with a raised hand when the ghost had prepared to go home. When they are the only ones left, Red Robin asks, "Did you have fun?"

The ghost grins at him. "Tons. I didn't realize other heroes could just be…" He looks thoughtful for a minute as he searches for the word. "Teenagers, I guess. I don't know, it makes me feel better that I'm not the only hero that likes to hang out with friends sometimes."

Red Robin gives him a small smile, which speaks volumes given who it's coming from. "I'm glad you came. See you at training."

The ghost hero nods, smiling, before he asks Traci to send him home. He doesn't even realize he hadn't gone to check on Sam, which he'd taken to doing religiously before he went home. However, Red Robin does, and he is immensely pleased with himself at the progress the ghost made. It was like Phantom couldn't comprehend the girl was safe and had to constantly check. Leaving without checking up on her is a step in the right direction.

Another one is made when Danny waves at Sam with a bright smile the next morning but doesn't go to hover over her until training starts. Instead, he joins Beast Boy and Kid Flash's conversation, which they welcome him into without hesitation.

Red Robin grins to himself. Progress feels good.

Unfortunately, Sam could not share that sentiment, as she tried for the hundredth time to utilize the magic inside her for the most basic opening spell on the box in front of her. All the excitement of having magic had managed to wear off, leaving Sam with nothing but frustration. She understood how this magic worked, went through countless exercises with Zatanna, and had witnessed and felt it being done a dozen times, and yet, her magic wouldn't do anything.

The intense frustration at accomplishing nothing yet again ruined her mood, and by extension, Danny's, when he joined her for lunch. Sam ignores his hurt expression when she snapped at him, justifying her behavior as frustration.

Besides, it's not like he'd take it personally.

* * *

**Wow, look at me, back so soon! I got pretty excited when I saw the reviews so I took a break from this random other story I started writing (not a fanfiction, surprisingly) and cranked out another chapter with a little more fluff. I know this one is a bit more Danny centered, but I wanted to get him more integrated into the team. There will be a couple more Danny centered chapters, but the story is about Sam so don't worry about her being forgotten.**

**I want to clarify a couple of things that were mentioned in the reviews. Danny didn't get defeated in training. He was getting critiqued. I am not going to water down his powers at all, as I hate when fanfic writers make him a pansy. He does have weaknesses, however, and I've chosen to make anxiety his biggest one. His fighting technique is completely self-invented, with only a little inspiration from others. In training, the other heroes had a lot to correct him on, which made him feel like a failure. With anxiety, even the smallest comment or silence can result in hours of overthinking. When he's sitting beside Sam, who is unintentionally ignoring him, he has plenty of time to build everything up in his head until he explodes. Furthermore, he only snapped at Red Robin, who he was irritated at in the first place. I know not everyone here is a fan of angst, but I'm putting it in anyway. This is going to cause conflict between Danny and Sam that I want to work through. **

**Anyway, thank you so much for reading! I really enjoy getting feedback for my stories. I also want to promote my other story, Adventures of a Screwed Up Clone, in case any of you need a Quarantine Binge. I personally really liked that story, but it's a bit harder to find because it's under Batman X DP. **

**Until we meet again, **

**Starr**


	10. Chapter 10

Sam is meditating again.

Honestly, it feels like that's the only thing she does anymore.

It's been three weeks since she woke up here, and it has been strangely quiet. There's nothing new on her case and the missions have been rotating around fairly non-Light related crimes. Danny had gone in for his first mission that following morning, and Sam was redoubling her efforts to become useful while he was gone.

She'd gone through other exercises with Zatanna, where she learned to identify the origin and type of magical energy in an object and how to follow its trail, but she could still do nothing with her own magic. Honestly, Sam felt completely useless. Here she is, meditating yet again, with no results.

Even though Zatanna won't say so, Sam can tell she's getting impatient as well. That's why she isn't surprised to find Doctor Fate when she draws herself out of meditation. They're talking in low tones off to the side.

Mortified and frustrated, Sam clenches her hands in front of her, waiting for them to complete their conversation. If she could only figure the stupid thing out, she wouldn't be stuck meditating for hours.

Even though she recognizes that it's irrational to be frustrated after less than a month of training, to her it feels like failure. Danny's face of disappointment after she informed him of her continued non-progress torments her. Everytime she closes her eyes, she can see that face.

"Sam?"

Zatanna's voice draws Sam out of her reverie. She shakes out the frustration and gets to her feet. "Yeah?"

"Doctor Fate has a theory."

Sam's heart lightens considerably. A smile threatens to split her face, but she pushes it down with hard reality: theory doesn't mean answer. Only that he has an idea.

Doctor Fate, once he's introduced, doesn't wait to share the theory with Sam. "The energies coexist with each other; day and night at the same time. There is no way to combine them into any spell, since they cancel each other. In order to access the energies separately, they need to be balanced within you."

Sam's heart drops into her stomach. "So I need to keep meditating?"

Doctor Fate doesn't react. "Yes. Until they are separated, you will not be able to perform even the most basic of spells."

"Why could I kill that plant that night of my birthday?" Sam demands, stubborn.

"Order and Chaos are fighting within you. The bracelets Phantom crafted have allowed for the energies to identify the other as its opposite. This only allows them to fight for control. When one gets the edge over another, some excess energy may spillover into an uncontained spell. It's unpredictable, but it does prove that you are capable of magic."

Sam's frustration itches under her skin, and she grows more desperate. "But I don't even know what I'm trying to _achieve _with meditation! I can feel the energy, but how am I supposed to separate them? They feel the _exact same_ to me!"

Again, Doctor Fate is stoic. Zatanna, however, is far more sympathetic, and answers her question for her. "It will come to you in time. We can introduce you to Chaos and Order magic so you can learn the distinction."

"You've already done that!" Sam shouts. In the empty training room, her voice echoes back at her. _That, that, that._

Zatanna steps forward and places her hands on Sam's shoulders. Sam meets her bright blue eyes with her own pale violet, shaking with unrestrained frustration. "We will figure this out, Sam. This has never happened before. We can continue researching the runes on your bracelets, we can introduce you to your energies separately, but we can't give you a teacher. Two opposites have never existed so completely in one vessel before."

Sam's heart slams against her chest, her frenzied breaths suddenly stalling in her throat. Her sudden realization drops her into a pool of ice water. Because two opposites _have _existed in one vessel before. And she was _dating him._

Zatanna's frown grows deeper at Sam's rigidity. "Sam?"

Their eyes meet. Sam steps back from Zatanna, a hopeful smile growing by the second. "What about Phantom? He's living dead!"

The two adult mystics share a glance. "I'm not sure…" Zatanna begins.

"No! He has to be! He's dead, but he's still living a life! Or afterlife! He can at least teach me the difference between life and death, since he's experienced both!" Zatanna looks skeptical, but Sam refuses to let the older magician take this away from her. "It's not like you have better ideas! At the very least, we can try to figure out where he got these designs!"

Zatanna exhales, acquescising. "We can try next training session."

"Until then, meditate on your own time," Doctor Fate instructs. With that order, he takes his leave.

Sam's ears are buzzing in excitement as she exchanges farewells with Zatanna. She can't wait until tomorrow. Danny's here in the Watchtower somewhere, and she has to see him.

She wanders the halls, giddy, until eventually Nightwing takes pity on her when he runs into her on his way to the showers and gives her directions to the lounge where the Team was bonding.

When Nightwing said bonding, Sam expected them to be doing trust exercises or something equally ridiculous. Instead, when she opens the door, she's met with a wave of outraged laughter.

Assorted members of the Team, both with uniform and without, are scattered in a pseudo-circle. Some are lounging on pillows while others sit cross-legged. All are holding a hand of cards. Snacks scatter around them, bowls full of pretzels and chips and cookies. Red Robin has a container of Nutella in his crossed legs, by all appearances guarding it with his life.

Danny is pushed up against the armchair, his legs splayed on the floor in front of him. He has a pretzel rod in the side of his mouth, chewing thoughtfully as he considers the plays of the heroes before him. After a moment's consideration, he plays a draw two card, eyeing Spoiler on his right for her reaction.

She plays another draw two, and so does the next hero. It continues to build until Beast Boy has to draw fourteen cards, which he does so with loud protestations.

It's here that Sam is noticed on the rim of the room. Cass waves at her with a wide smile, brandishing a lollipop. The goth is suddenly the center of attention as all the heroes look at her expectantly. She smiles in greeting, half-raising her hand in a wave, before making eye contact with Danny.

He glances at his cards in parting, his only clue that he's going to miss the game. After setting them down, he looks delighted to see her. The ghost moves to rise, taking the pretzel out of his mouth, but Sam stops him, walking forward briskly.

"What can I do for ya?" he asks amiably.

Wary of all the eyes on them, Sam mutters, "I wanted to talk to you about something Zatanna and I decided today."

He's nodding before he's done, turning to announce his departure to his friends. They all make disappointed faces, and Sam shakes her head vigorously. "No, we don't have to now, you're right in the middle of a game, and bonding, and stuff…"

"Well, not that we've seen his cards," the red headed kid exclaims, gesturing to Danny's splayed hand.

"We can redeal," Red Robin announces, leaning to grab the deck from the center. Everyone hands over their cards, which Red Robin stacks. "Join us?" He looks at her as he bridges effortlessly, cutting the deck and shuffling in flawless movements.

Danny looks at her hopefully.

"Sure," she hears herself agree.

The heroes cheer as Danny leads her to a spot beside him and offers a pretzel.

In minutes she finds herself having more fun than she's had for months, even before her captivity. It's the first time she forgets her frustration in a week.

With a smile, Sam plays a draw four on the stack of draw twos. Spoiler, with an equally evil smile, plays another.

And so the rounds continue.

* * *

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Danny asks her the next morning as they wander back to her room. They'd played so late into the night many of the heroes ended up falling asleep, including the goth and the ghost, though the latter for only a few hours in the very early morning.

Sam yawns, stretching her arms above her head once again. "At training today I want to see if us meditating together will help me with these energies, or whatever."

Danny raises an eyebrow at her unenthusiastic response but otherwise doesn't react. "So, the hippie approach."

With a half-hearted glare and even weaker shove, Sam argues his point. "No, it's mystical meditation. It's used to internalize yourself so you can be at one with your energy."

Even she hears it, so when Danny retorts with a smug grin, she just rolls her eyes instead of arguing again. The ghost follows her into her bedroom when they arrive, contemplating his answer. After only a few moments, he concedes. "Sure, I'll do the meditation thing. What do you think I'll be able to do?"

"Well, you made the bracelets," Sam points out as she tugs off her boots. Danny's face screws up, and she hurries to amend her statement before he can protest. "I'm just saying! You made the designs that apparently grant me a tiny, tiny bit of control." He lets out a defeated sigh. "And anyway, we're trying to separate two opposite energies co-existing in the same place at the same time. Sound familiar?"

A slight tilt of the ghost's head is her answer. Sam rolls her eyes before clarifying, "Who else do we know is a scientific _and _mystical impossibility?"

Eyebrows scrunched, Danny points to his chest in question. Sam rolls her eyes more powerfully, which is enough of an answer for the ghost. Though more reluctant now, Danny agrees to help her once more.

That is all they say on the subject. For the next hour, Sam readies herself for the day and eats breakfast with Cassie; Danny had to return to Amity to see his family and make sure the whole city didn't burn down in his absence. It's the first time in what feels like forever that the goth is excited for training. They finally have a clear goal, and she's ready to figure this puzzle out with someone who already had.

She arrives in the gym ten minutes early, passing the remaining time with idle chatter with Cassie, Spoiler and Blue Beetle. When it reaches ten, Sam splits from the heroes to meet up with Zatanna and Doctor Fate, who arrive together. Unfortunately, while the goth and her two teachers are ready to get started, Danny has yet to show up, which steadily wears on Sam's nerves.

A solid fifteen minutes later, a boom tube erupts in the air and spits out the adolescent spirit, who's windblown and flustered.

Sam ignores his flurried apologies and instead catches him up in terse sentences. Her teachers were convinced that the best way to begin was to see the two meditate and document what occurred. Sam agreed, since she favored action over lectures and theorizing.

So, not even five minutes after he arrived, Danny was in a lotus position, floating inches off the ground with Sam's down-turned hands in his palms. He feels her concentration through their limited contact, and when he peeks his eyes open, he sees her brow scrunched over tightly closed eyes.

Danny isn't sure what to focus on. Honestly, he never really did meditating, at least not for an extended amount of time. He tended to be fidgety and quickly lost all concentration in the purpose of the exercise. Today, however, he is determined to concentrate for Sam's sake; he'd noticed how worn out and on-edge she'd been lately. Three weeks is practically eternity when you're only focused on one thing.

After ten minutes, Sam's hands tighten over Danny's. "This isn't working," she hisses, suddenly drawing back from Danny. He opens his eyes, bewildered, and looks to the raven-haired magician for further instruction.

Patiently, Zatanna instructs them to return to their positions. Sam does so with a petulant frown, landing her hands in Danny's with a bit more force than necessary. "There is a difference between meditating and simply closing your eyes," Zatanna begins in a serene voice, her hands lightly brushing the duo's shoulders. "Feel inside yourself for the source of the energy." Danny notes by Sam's non-reaction that she'd probably heard this talk before. After this revelation-and a small pinch from Sam to remind him to pay attention-he reaches into his core, reveling in the cool peace it emits. "Now feel it spread, all the way through your body, to the very tips of your fingers. It should fill you completely, until you can feel your whole body just by focusing on your energy. Nod when you have."

Danny does so, willing the frosty energy to fill his entire body with a chilling comfort. For him, it takes moments, or maybe minutes, and he slowly inclines his head in a nod when he is sure even his fingers and toes are cold.

Zatanna says nothing, waiting for Sam to complete what Danny had done. It takes her several more minutes, which Danny struggles to stay focused for. The comforting energy threatens to recede with his fidgets, and he has to continually reach his energy back into his hands and feet. Finally, after what feels like an hour-at _least_-Zatanna moves on.

"Can you feel the energy buzzing in each other's hands?" she asks.

At her prompt, Danny extends his mind to the feel of Sam's hands on his. The energies merge together seamlessly; opposites meeting opposites in a strange sort of camaraderie. Danny can feel the energy bleeding into Sam's, stretching through his fingers into hers and exchanging the lost chill with the spicy-sweet feel of Sam's energy.

He can feel her as an extension of himself the farther the energies reach. They move in tandem, both sliding up the lengths of their arms at a leisurely pace. Danny's impatience is forgotten now; the moment is so ineffable and intimate it consumes all his other thoughts.

Eventually, the energies reach each other's cores. This sensation is unpleasant, as the breach is unnatural and abrupt, but the slow acclimatization of each other's energies helps settle the initial unease. Sam's core is vast and chaotic. Danny can feel the war between the two conflicting energies and the added confusion of Sam's emotions. It's war and peace and love and hate and light and dark and order and chaos. He almost loses himself in the intricacy of it, almost loses the touch on his own core under the oppressiveness of her's.

But he doesn't. Because it's war and peace, it's love and hate, it's light and dark, it's order and chaos, but above all, it's life and death. And so his own balance begins to settle itself in the hurricane of conflict, a rock in a stream, chaos on the right, order on the left.

Sam's own experience is not nearly as productive.

Her whirlwind is thrown into a settled winterland, stirring the snow into a blizzard that blinds her. She doesn't feel balance or peace-only stillness and quiet that oppresses her. The environment does nothing to soothe her winds, does nothing to separate her energy. Her hurricane becomes a blizzard she can't navigate. She doesn't lose touch of her energy, and she couldn't if she wanted to. The storm wreaks havoc on her, tossing her this way and that, ripping her sense of control out from under her feet and throwing her up into the air.

She feels Danny's cooling stillness inside her, still. Sam tries to call for his help, to enter the coolness and let it settle the storm around her, but his energy is as responsive as stone. At that moment, Sam drops her panic and confusion and instead holds fast to a burning frustration that had been her faithful companion the last two weeks. She no longer revels in Danny's balance. She no longer draws strength from his still waters. In fact, in that moment, Sam doesn't even _admire_ Danny's tenuous control.

Sam's own energy might be a masterpiece of intertwining opposites, buffered in the wind by each stray tendril of her emotion, but Danny's is the true work of art. It's simple, but so delicate. One of a kind-a vestige of control that goes beyond anything Sam had experienced before. The winds atop Danny's icy tundras may blow with every feeling he experiences, and the water beneath the ice may roar with the tide of his obsession, but the ice doesn't waver. It's thick, impenetrable, and the water and air never mix.

And suddenly, Sam is wildly, completely, overwhelmingly _jealous_.

Frustration and envy and rage all bleed together, fueled by chaotic power and wiping away her rationale and control. She is going to break free of this hurricane, if only to _prove_ that she can do what Danny has done.

With a ferocious cry, Sam slams her fists into the ground, the only target in the tundra of Danny's core. A crack splinters from her pressure, deep, but only strong enough to reach a few feet in front of her. Danny's energy-still present in Sam's bloodstream that she could, however vaguely, still register-recognizes the crack and begins to withdraw.

But the wind slowly pushing her back only enrages Sam further.

Deep in the back of her mind, Sam knows that what she's doing could have untold consequences to the boy she loves. But impulsivity and anger had taken the reins, and she found herself driving her fists into the ice once again.

The cracks spread, splintering around her like a flower blooms, and Danny's energy revolts. _Sam_, she feels, rather than hears. It's a panicked, desperate plea, an ignorant warning from the energy that told her what she was doing was hurting Danny.

The panic feels good. Sam's overwhelming need to destroy clouds her vision, and the tiny voice inside that whispers about her horrible mistake. Sam raises her hands, clasped, and brings them down in a powerful overhand strike.

In that instant, Sam's mind clears. She realizes her mistake, realizes what she'd just _done_, but it's too late to take it back. The ice splinters, breaking into slabs that allow the water to slosh into the air. This wasn't meaningless destruction of a frozen tundra. This was Danny's _balance_, and she'd just destroyed it.

With an anguished cry, Sam is sucked back through her energy and thrown back into awareness, uncomfortably hot with the abrupt loss of Danny's chill.

When fully back in her body, Sam opens her eyes just as Danny lets out a scream of agony.

* * *

**I know. I know. I come back from the dead only to post a cliffhanger. But this is my incentive to write out the next chapter. Every review you guys leave keeps me going~~**

**But seriously, I do apologize. I took some time off to focus on my novel that I've been trying to write. I am capable of writing more than one story at a time, that wasn't the problem. I went through some stuff that kinda drove my anxiety insane and as a result I could really only handle one thing at a time. It's not over yet, but at least the impending school year got some productivity juices flowing and I was able to take advantage and churn out this boi. **

**Hope you enjoy!**

**~Starr**


	11. Chapter 11

Sam scrambles up from her position on the floor; she must've fallen back when she lost track of her own body. Her frantic moves are hindered by her crossed legs, and she struggles to free herself up so she can crawl over to Danny, who's drawn his knees to his chest and buried his gloved hands in his hair.

Dimly, Sam is aware that the rest of the gym has reacted to Danny's screams and are making their way over to them. Her heart beats painfully against her chest, and her mouth tastes like bile. Helpless, her hands hover close to him, unsure of what to do.

Before her eyes, she watches a single streak of black darkens his hair. Panic is thick in her lungs, coming out in sharp gasps as she struggles to force the air in. What had she done? What had she _done?_

Only a few moments after his hair streaked, Danny's hands slacken against his scalp. As if his strings had been cut, his limbs fall to the ground, head slack and eyes closed. Her hands find his chest, grasping for a heartbeat, but when she finds one-weak and slow as it might be-it's not relief that she feels in response.

A beating heart as a ghost. Danny's heart didn't beat as a ghost.

Abstract horror grips Sam.

She can't breathe.

She grabs his shoulders and shakes him, but there's no response. Her movements only become more vigorous; the shaking begins to snap his head back and forth.

Hands suddenly tear her boyfriend out of her hands, holding her back when she begins to fight her way back. "Sam!" someone is shouting in her face. "Breathe!"

Her panicked eyes flit to the person in front of her, still too frenzied to discern who it is. The arms don't relinquish her, but the grip loosens, allowing her to breathe easier, as if the constraints had even been the problem.

"What happened?" comes the voice again. "Why are you sorry?"

This confusing question finally brings her out of the haze of panic. The shocking revelation that she remembered repeating her apologies over and over again brings her back into focus; with a few more blinks, she finally locks eyes with Nightwing.

He notices her lucidity immediately. "Can you explain to us what happened?"

A false sense of calm washes over Sam. She feels sick. Feebly, she tugs her arms from the grip holding her back, who relinquishes her instantly. "We were doing training," Sam comments with a dull tone. "We were meditating, and we joined energies. He was so balanced and calm and…" Her eyes fill with unexpected tears, which she is quick to blink away. Still, her voice is full of them, thick and emotional. "I got so… There was so much noise in my energy and I got so…" She can't even admit it to herself-that she got so frustrated and jealous that the overwhelming need to destroy just took over. "Panicked," she finishes.

"And?" prompts Zatanna, coming up beside Nightwing. She's sympathetic and concerned, that much Sam can tell, but the goth doesn't appreciate the magician's worry over her.

Sam's voice is lower. "I broke it."

"Broke it?" Nightwing parrots back to her, his confusion clear.

Now it's only a broken, ashamed whisper. "His balance."

* * *

Danny spends endless hours grappling with his form. It takes everything in his power not to dissolve into a puddle of goo… or revert back into his human form. Actually, he's quite sure that if he were to give into the urge to be human, not unlike the urge that usually pulled at him after using his Ghostly Wail or expending too much energy in one go, he would merge into the opposite of a "living ghost," which is unfortunately a "dead human."

So he struggles with himself, desperate to hold his tenuous control together. His balance is in shambles-the two worlds he had managed to keep apart were now violently colliding. The intermingle threatened to tear him apart. What would he be if he let his energies mingle as freely as Sam's did? Would he merge into some amalgamation of a ghost and human? Or would he simply become one or the other? Would he dissolve into sentient goo?

He decided he didn't want to find out.

The hours until he achieved enough fragments of his control to keep his form together were some of the worst in his life. It felt like he was in a tornado trying to keep a stack of papers together. How was he supposed to keep hold of those flimsy sheets while also trying to keep himself alive in the windstorm?

And he might've been unconscious, but he was _far _from resting.

If Danny hadn't been living in balance for the past two years, the battle would've been lost. Whether it would be from lack of understanding or sheer exhaustion was unclear, but whatever reason he would've lost is saved by his relative experience. Just as he's about to snap under the strain, he manages to glue and duct tape his control back together just enough for him to relax.

The next hours are oblivion.

They are far from restful themselves, or at least adequately so. When he finally feels himself becoming aware again, he is more exhausted than he can ever remember being.

The implications of what Sam had done to him hit him full force hours before, but now the consequences of it began to filter in. He would have to fix the balance, which could take months. Years. He had no idea what the time frame on this type of damage was like. Betrayal stung him, a loss of trust so potent he can feel it like needles of pain in his core (besides the wreckage that had already been left behind). The half-ghost is suddenly overcome with the urge to cry, but he is quick to postpone it.

Without ceremony, he opens his eyes.

The first sight he registers is Red Robin, who's standing beside the bed absorbed in a tablet. This surprises the ghost, to say the least-of all the people he would imagine seeing beside him, Batman's protege was pretty unlikely.

In no mood to initiate conversation, Danny stares at him until he's noticed. It doesn't take long, the other hero being highly observant, and when they lock gazes, the tablet gets placed on a nearby table.

"Welcome back," Red Robin states, stoic as always.

Danny nods.

"How are you feeling?"

A half-hearted shrug.

"Should I call for Sam?"

"No," Danny responds, clipped and final, without a hint of hesitation. Red Robin doesn't react to his animosity, and Danny doesn't break eye contact.

After a stretch of silence, Red Robin loses his patience and prods, "What happened?"

"She lost her temper," Danny responds, bitter. His hands tremble, so he presses them into the blankets. "She lost her temper, because she couldn't be as balanced as me. So she destroyed it."

The following pause is heavy with unsaid words, the betrayal and hurt written clearly in the ghost's expressive eyes, but he grits his teeth and shifts his gaze to his hands. After a few of Danny's labored breaths, Red Robin decides to try again. "Did she know what she was doing?"

Danny's eyes snap shut under the sudden flood of tears. "Yes." Unable to stay still any longer, Danny shifts his body to the edge of the bed, too wary of his shattered control to try intangibility and flying. Fists clenched at his sides, he meets Red Robin's mask with his stubborn gaze. "She didn't care. She only wanted to destroy."

"If it helps-"

"It doesn't."

Unperturbed by Danny's abrupt interruption, Red Robin continues. "She feels awful about it. She's been running back and forth between being here for you and covering your responsibilities in Amity Park."

Danny refuses to let this ease the pain of betrayal. "Do you know what breaking my balance means?" His voice breaks, so he lowers it until the other hero has to strain to hear him. "It's the only thing keeping me together." Ignoring the obvious confusion, the ghost presses on, his tone eventually becoming stronger and more frantic. "I let her in because there's no one I trust more in the entire world, because _I_ would never do _anything_ to hurt her! But there we were. I was helping her with balance, while she went destroying mine, because she was _angry_!"

"I'm sorry."

Danny turns to the new voice. Sam, accompanied by both Cassie and Beast Boy, had entered the room through the near-silent entrance. While embarrassed, Danny refuses to feel mollified by his outburst. He lowers his head and clenches his fists at his side once more. When the room's tension increases, Beast Boy mutters an excuse, gives a half-hearted wave, and leaves.

Sam approaches, hesitant and apologetic, but he doesn't watch her move towards him. "Phantom," she starts, soft and full of regret. "I'm so sorry. I did get angry, and I lashed out. I didn't know it would hurt you-"

Whatever hope Danny had for a genuine apology is shattered. His gaze darts up, his fiery green eyes burrowing into hers with the force of a power drill. "Don't even try to lie to me. We were connected. I knew _exactly_ what you knew."

Her heartbroken-and slightly panicked-expression is his only response, and Cassie quickly steps up to aide her. "We've been taking care of Amity for you! Still alive and thriving. Sam goes more than the rest of us, obviously, but we all wanted to lend a hand…"

Sam seizes the opportunity Cass hands her and brightens for an artificial moment. "Yeah. Covering for you, fighting the ghosts… No one suspects a thing!"

Danny shoots a glance back at Red Robin. "How long have I been out?"

There's not a single flicker in his expression as he answers, "Four days, give or take a few hours."

His heart sinks like a heavy weight, but it's only one more problem to his heaping stack. "Okay. Okay." He takes a deep breath, eyes fluttering closed for a brief moment to center himself. "I have to go back to Amity."

When his eyes open, Sam is desperate. "No, they're fine, we just got back! We can take a little bit to figure-"

Danny speaks over her, unforgiving and angry. "_I'm_ not fine!" His eyes are blazing, almost too bright to keep eye contact with, but Sam forces herself to anyway. Danny slams his hands on his chest. "Do you have any idea what you've _done_? I can't fix this with a few days of rest! I have no _idea_ how long it will take to fix this, or if I _even can!_" Looking at her shell-shocked face, Danny finally relents and lets out a heavy sigh. "I need some time to try and figure this out. I can't use my powers, so I can't do any missions. Everyone just needs to…" He runs his hands down his face. "Just give me some space."

The room is silent. Danny only turns to Red Robin, the most sensible person in the room, for confirmation that he could go. The Robin nods once, brisk, and Danny wastes no more time in ordering Traci to send him home.

When the boom tube closes, all that's left is Sam's crestfallen face.

* * *

It's three weeks later that Red Robin finds himself on a roof in Amity Park, scouting for the absent ghostly hero with heat-seeking binoculars. He'd been at it for three hours, though he didn't mind. To be honest, even the stoic partner of the Dark Knight had begun feeling antsy; tensions had run high both with the Team and in the BatCave for the past weeks, and he needed some quiet time to think. And beyond all of that, the Team could really use the ghost hero. He'd only been on a couple missions, but his powers were their ace of spades.

So Red Robin watched the quiet city, partially concealed by the shadows, letting the night hours drag on. He isn't concerned with actually speaking to Phantom; just confirming the ghost teen was still among the living-so to speak-would be enough for the Boy Wonder.

Sam had been a wreck the past few weeks. She conceded to giving Phantom his space and so did not return to Amity Park to speak with him, but it was clear he was constantly on her mind. For the first week she had abstained from magic training-instead deciding to devote herself to physical exercise and sparring. She quickly tired of the monotony and finally allowed herself to try meditation again, but with little results. Her passion for it had evaporated under the guilt and resolute refusal to allow herself to feel any sort of frustration. Anyone could see she felt bad about it, but no one tried to console her. Sam had done wrong and telling her she hadn't wouldn't help her or Phantom.

It's around three in the morning when his first sign of Phantom shows in his binoculars. Nothing more than a cold spot moving through the air, the shadow of a human form flits through the air. Zoning in on it, Red Robin follows the shade's movements as it clashes with another, more subtle figure.

While it's too far away to make out any sounds it could've caused, the movements make it clear the two are fighting, and rather violently. Red Robin sets his binoculars back on his utility belt and begins to leap across the buildings to close the distance between them.

The noise eventually filters through about two streets away; Red Robin takes two more running leaps to get him onto a building sharing the alleyway where the now-visible ghosts fight. He got there a few moments too soon, as Phantom finishes off the brawl by containing the pale blue ghost in a cylindrical device.

The ghost, with a long-suffering sigh, clips the device onto the side of his belt and rises into the air. Red Robin makes himself more visible by standing on the edge of the roof in plain view, though he wouldn't go so far as to call out to the ghost for attention.

Grumbling, Phantom rises until he's soaring higher than the Boy Wonder. For a moment, Red Robin thinks that he'd escaped the ghost's attention completely, but as Phantom changes course, his view scrapes past him.

Phantom's double-take is violent, and Red Robin is sure that if he'd been standing the ghost would've toppled over. He almost smirks.

Recovering quickly, Phantom lowers himself until he's only floating just high enough to make Red Robin look up at him. He folds his arms and levels the hero with a petulant frown. "I'm not ready to come back yet."

Red Robin tilts his head. "Your powers seem to be working alright."

This doesn't deter him. "Yeah, for the most part. You gotta point?"

"We were under the impression that you would return when your balance was restored."

Phantom scoffs, a harsh, guttural sound. "I'm sure I must be really disappointing, I know. Not the hero you all thought I was, huh?"

Red Robin is tempted to believe that Phantom is genuinely upset with him, which would be reasonable, as the Boy Wonder had basically insinuated Phantom was only good for his powers. But the words hold more self-deprecation than true ire, and that is something Red Robin can sympathize with. "Phantom," he says.

The one word has the ghost hanging his head. "I'm sorry," he mutters. "I'm not ready yet."

"Okay."

But neither move. Phantom keeps his head down, and Red Robin stands motionless on the edge of the roof. After several moments, the visiting hero steps off, startling the floating teen with the sudden movement. He doesn't leave, however, but sits on the roof, leaning back against the ledge he had previously been standing on. By looking over at the other boy, Red Robin invites him to sit.

He does so, heaving his back against the ledge with a heavy sigh. His luminescent eyes scan the sky, morose and fascinated at the same time. The silence stretches, inviting, until the ghost finally confides in the stoic hero. "What's the line between taking care of yourself and being petty?"

Red Robin doesn't have a response, so Phantom continues.

"I know that doesn't make sense-I'm over-simplifying it. What I mean is, how can I let myself figure out what happened and try to forgive Sam without holding a grudge? When does validating my feelings become self-absorption?"

This time he waits for a response. Red Robin ponders the query and fits it to his own ponderings on the same subject. "When it does more harm than good," he answers finally.

"To who?"

Maybe Alfred is rubbing off on him, but the third Robin answers the simple question with a story instead. Perhaps if he confides in the ghost, Phantom will reciprocate. It's not entirely about solving the enigma that is the Ghost of Amity Park, at least, not anymore. Red Robin finds himself commiserating with the teen. He could see them becoming allies.

And so, Red Robin says, "There were two other Robins before me."

Phantom glances over at him, attentive, but says nothing.

So he continues. "The first became Nightwing when he grew out of the role. The second, however, was killed by the Joker." Phantom's expression tightens into something more serious, but he doesn't interrupt. "Batman told himself he would never take another kid as a partner because of what happened, and he reverted back to his solo routine. But Batman was never meant to be alone.

"When he was first starting out, he learned his enemies and settled into his role. He was fine, then, since it was all so new. Then he took Robin as a partner. Things began getting more serious, deadly. The Justice League came into play. The dangers of today were only just starting. But the first Dynamic Duo was so seamless, so…" Red Robin searches for the correct term. "_Effortless._ And it helped that the first Robin was the best.

"But the next Robin was new. Batman picked him off the street and began to train him." At Phantom's odd look he elaborates, "It started with Batman trying to help him get off the streets, but they developed a bond." Phantom nods, still curious, but Red Robin continues. "When he died, Batman went solo, like I said before. He insisted he was fine, but his tactics got more violent, and he lost himself in the evil surrounding him. That's when I tracked him down and insisted Batman needed Robin."

Red Robin takes a moment to breathe. He wasn't prone to speaking much, so he needs a minute to collect his thoughts back in one place. Finally, he explains, "Batman wasn't at fault for needing time to grieve, but when he lost himself, lost sight of his ideals, he crossed that line. Sometimes there's no way to tell when you've crossed it, and you need someone else to do it for you."

He lets the words ruminate in Phantom's head until the ghost is ready to ask the intended question. "So have I?"

"Maybe. You're justified, certainly, and you deserve as much time as you need to sort it all out. But is that what you're doing?"

His answer is silence, but one glance confirms that he's at least thinking about it. "I don't know," he sighs at last, dropping his head into his hands. "I just… I don't know."

"Batman trained me for months before he let me out on patrols. Even then, he didn't send me off alone for almost another year. He still doesn't let me split off from him when the Joker's loose."

Phantom removes his hands so he can peer at the other boy. "What are you trying to suggest?"

Red Robin drops the act of dancing around his point and states bluntly, "I'm suggesting you come back. You don't have to meditate with Sam again, and you don't even have to talk to her if you don't want to, but come back for training, maybe for the bonding exercises if you feel up to it."

It's more of a command than a request, though Phantom doesn't have the heart to argue against it. "Can you change training times? So I can avoid her a bit longer?"

"I guess." Red Robin scrutinizes the other boy, frowning. "But is that really what you want to do?"

"I know it's petty," Phantom admits. "I know all of these things. But I do miss the Team, and I'm not ready to see Sam yet. Just a few days without her, with the Team instead, and I will be."

"Are you sure?"

Phantom's shoulders heave in a heavy sigh. "Yes, I'm sure. She's still my best friend-my girlfriend. I can't let this one mistake drag on."

While the other hero respects his decision, he's also wary of the ghost's ability to carry it out. "Will you be able to remain professional if the need calls for it?"

"Sure." Phantom stands, pride a bit smarted by the other hero's lack of faith in him. "I'm a hero, too, after all."

Red Robin rises to his feet as well, reaching a hand out to the ghost's shoulder as he moves to leave. "Phantom."

The ghost pauses and glances over his shoulder at him, but doesn't reply.

"I can see you struggling. You can talk to me."

Phantom scoffs. "So you can tell Batman? Pass." Red Robin inclines his head, and Phantom grows apologetic. "Maybe sometime. Maybe."

Red Robin nods. "I'll take it."

And the two heroes part ways.

* * *

**I debated waiting to post this chapter, but I figured there was no point to dragging it out. So, here you all are, the second chapter in as many days. I want to thank caylyncook for reviewing last chapter, and reminding me that there are still readers alive who care what happens in this story. I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can, but school is starting up next week and I've never braved "college" before, so we'll see how it goes. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	12. Chapter 12

Sam was certain that when Zatanna proposed they change their training locations to a private room that Danny would be back. She slipped out under the guise of going to the restroom and burst into the training room, certain she'd find Danny joking with the Team in full ghost form.

But she didn't. He wasn't there.

The next day, she tried again, but with the same result. Zatanna didn't accept Sam's excuse when she returned and Sam had been forced to reluctantly admit that she'd been hoping the ghost hero had returned. Then she steeled herself and continued to train. If she mastered balance on her own, she would never be put in a position where she could hurt Danny like before ever again.

Unfortunately, she was no closer to separating the Chaos and Order magic than she had been before. Zatanna had broadened the exercises to things Sam could do without attempting magic, such as mixing potions and identifying natural magic in mythical creatures, but it felt like she was going nowhere. She had destroyed Danny's balance with nothing to show for it.

So, during the times she usually would've hung out with her boyfriend, Sam takes to physical training instead. It's harder to feel guilt or anger when her feet are pounding on a treadmill, her lungs gasping for air and her muscles protesting every move. It makes her feel less trapped in her own skin. Less helpless. After all, Batman doesn't have any powers. Worst case scenario, she'll be a powerless heroine that can sense different types of magic.

Cass is her only interaction these days-beyond Zatanna and occasionally Tigress. She acts like nothing happened, and that's something Sam appreciates. The other heroes tried, but it didn't come off as genuine unless it came from Cass. Unfortunately for the blonde, however, her sincerity is not always beneficial, as it makes her painfully honest, even when she's trying her hardest to keep a secret.

They were hanging out in Cass's room, lounging on the bed. Cass was reading a magazine Sam wouldn't be caught dead with, while the goth herself read dark poetry. The two had eventually devolved into chatting, still holding their books open but no longer trying to read them.

Cass was telling Sam a story, one that had them both gasping for breath between laughter as Cass struggled to get more details out. During training that day, the Team had apparently decided to introduce their own form of espionage independent of the instructor. Someone had brought Uno cards and each hero had received five of their own kind-Red Robin, for instance, was given Red threes. The object was to attempt to steal the cards off of each other without the notice of their instructor. If they were caught, they had to relinquish their card with no explanation. The tales that followed were hilarious: Beast Boy caught sticking his hand down the back of 13's shirt where he swore later that he'd seen the shape of a card; Blue Beetle, who had very limited options as to where he could hide the blue sixes he'd been given, had ended up taping one to the underside of his foot, which three heroes discovered at the same time and ended up tackling him for; Superboy, one of the instructors that day, found three different cards in his back pocket with no recollection of how they ended up there (though everyone knew it had to be Red Robin); and etc.

"Who thought up this stuff?" Sam asks, breathless from laughter.

Cass grins. "Who else? Pha- Funny story, actually."

Her slip was almost seamless. She didn't hesitate to jump into the story of how it was thought up, but she distinctly neglected to name anyone.

And that moment, Sam knew that Danny had been returning.

When Cass finished her tale, all Sam asks is, "How long ago?"

Cass has the audacity to raise her eyebrows at her, which only causes Sam to grow more irritated. "Zatanna started me in a private room a week ago. It wasn't the first two days, so how long has Phantom been coming back?"

Cass abandons her efforts and casts her eyes to the bed, all traces of laughter gone. "Two days after that. He says he needs some time adjusting."

The sudden rush of anger is only paralleled by the hurt she feels at this revelation. "I told him I was sorry."

Cass looks like she might hug Sam, so the goth quickly shakes her head and chases away any rebellious tears. She swallows them down, thick and painful. "Is he balanced again?"

"Taking it easy, but he says it's getting better."

Sam pushes the heels of her hands into her eyes, the guilt rising full-force. "He's not healed yet?" Instead of repentant, her tone is unforgiving, agitated. She wishes her voice wouldn't sound like she was feeling anything at all. She wishes she sounded distant, detached.

She so desperately wishes she were the victim here.

Cass sighs. "He compared it to throwing stones in a glass house. He says it's taking forever to make the pieces fit again."

"That's surprisingly poetic of him," Sam groans, still covering her eyes. When she pulls them away, she sees Cass looking at her with concern.

"Can…" Cass seems hesitant. Sam looks at her, knowing her question but needing to hear it anyway. "Can I ask what happened?"

Sam had refused to explain the specifics to anyone. She couldn't face her own guilt. But right now she felt so guilty, so awful, that a little self-deprecation sounded nice. "We were connected. I could feel our energy combining in every part of our bodies. I'm fire, you know, and chaos, and justice, and whatever. But it was like Phantom injected cool peace into my veins. He has issues, just like everyone else, but when he's helping someone, or being the hero he is, he's so peaceful. Safe. I felt good. He let me into his core, and I let him into mine. He started to sort everything out, but I didn't really have anything to do. I was walking around, enjoying the stillness, feeling Phantom carefully pick through my energies for me, and suddenly, I was just so…"

Sam clutches her hands into fists. "Angry. Jealous, maybe. So, _so_ frustrated. And the ice was right there. And for a minute, all I wanted to do was break something. So I broke it.

"I wasn't trying to hurt Danny specifically. I just wanted someone else to hurt. Nothing can excuse that. It was so stupid. I just lost it." She felt Cass's arm on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off and forced a neutral expression onto her face. "Is he doing okay? Has he said anything about me?"

"Um… I think so, and no." Cass looks pained. "He's being particularly quiet about you."

Sam pretends that doesn't feel like a cleaver to her heart and says, dispassionately, "Smart."

"Look, Sam…"

"No, it's fine," she interrupts, standing. "I just want some time alone."

Cass doesn't stop Sam as she collects her book and leaves the room.

Sam wishes she had.

* * *

The next morning, Sam doesn't hesitate to barge into the training room at ten in the morning. She had spent the previous evening feeling like absolute crap knowing that Danny was deliberately avoiding her, and, true to her nature, she sought confrontation. Sam would never be the type of girl to sit idly by when there was a chance to do something.

So she does.

Doubt doesn't even cross her mind as she stomps right up to Danny, who is eyeing her with barely-restrained panic. The team shares uncomfortable glances, but at least Danny doesn't insult her by looking to them for help.

"Can I talk to you?" she demands, crossing her arms.

Danny's eyes flicker to the team behind him. "Uh. Training is just about to start."

"You're late all the time," Sam reminds him, though her tone is still abrasive. She sees Danny's shoulders hunch ever so slightly-his subtle tell that he was beginning to feel cornered. Sam inhaled deeply, then restated, "Please? Just a minute?"

Once more, Danny glances at the team, but when there are no objections, he nods. They only move away to the edge of the room, since Danny clearly didn't want to leave training, but Sam doesn't mind so much. So what if they hear? They'd probably find out about it later.

Now that she's in front of him, Sam's mind goes blank. Or rather, the words fill up so much of her thought she doesn't know where to begin. She'd imagined this conversation a hundred times over the past few weeks, but now that she could actually have it, she didn't know which version to use.

So she started with: "Are you doing better?"

Danny searches her face, as if trying to read her intentions. Then he looks down. "Maybe… 70%?" When her face falls, he mumbles, quickly, "But fine. I feel fine."

"I'm sorry, you know that, right? I don't… I don't know what… I don't know why I did that."

Suddenly he can't meet her gaze. "I know," he says to the ground.

"Do you… forgive me?" Sam cringes at her choice of words, but she needed to know either way.

"Yeah. You were under a lot of stress. You've been frustrated since you woke up. I don't blame you."

Then why are his words so quiet? Why is he so withdrawn? Why won't he look at her?

"Why are you still avoiding me?"

Danny winds even tighter, and his hands come together to fidget. "I don't know."

"Then-"

"But I know I need to."

Sam feels her heart fill with lead. It's like a slap to the face; Sam reels from the blunt statement. He'd never needed time away. They're best friends. They're each other's most trusted person, safest place, and deepest confidant all rolled up into one. Sam opens her mouth, but no words come out.

"I'm sorry," Danny whispers, urgent, though he doesn't move to touch her. "I'm not trying to hurt you, I swear, but I just… _can't_."

"For how long?" Sam's voice is flat.

"I don't know."

"So you haven't forgiven me at all, have you?"

"No! That's not it," he pleads.

But Sam has shut down. There's so many feelings in her chest that it's like she can't feel any of them at all. "Then what is it?"

"I just… Sam, I didn't…"

"What?"

"Know you were capable of that," he whispers, his voice so soft Sam can barely hear him.

Panic rises in her, but her voice is cool, controlled. "So we're over?"

"No! No! Sam, I'm not saying any of that!" His volume doesn't rise above a whisper, but the intensity grows, showing the panic on his face that Sam feels expressionless. "I'm just… I'm allowed to need time, Sam…"

"It was a mistake," she replies, cracks starting to form in her composure. She almost feels like she's pleading, though maybe her voice doesn't come across quite that desperate. Instead, it sounds more like she's lobbying for animal rights. "_Killing animals is unhygenic, cruel."_ A calm argument concealing a desperate plea. "First offense. I haven't done anything like that before, and I never will again."

The words have the opposite effect on her best friend. His expression shutters, his whole body drooping. Sam watches, waiting for him to say something, and just as she's about to ask him what's going on, he says, simply: "Desiree."

And Sam feels her stomach drop.

She'd been so angry at him once that she'd wished they'd never met. And her wish had been granted.

But she hadn't _known_ that would happen. She wasn't to blame for it actually coming to pass. She hadn't even _wanted_ it! It was just a stupid, stupid choice of words.

She relays this to him, but he just nods, saying nothing.

Something inside her snaps.

"Stop this!" Her raised volume startles Danny into looking back at her, and when they meet eyes, he can't look away. Sam's desperation transforms itself into anger as a reflex, and she can't stop herself from exploding. "I'm your best friend! We trust each other with everything! And I make two mistakes, _two_, and you need time away? Do you have any idea how hard it is to be _your _friend sometimes? Making mistakes is part of _life_, and you owe me, at the very least, the benefit of the doubt!"

"I am giving you the benefit of the doubt," Danny defends, looking hurt.

Sam pushes on, emotion spurring her tongue without conscious decision. "When the weight of the world is on your shoulders, you're allowed to be a crappy friend! Leaving Tuck and I to clean up your messes, constantly covering for you as you dart away, being moody when the weather isn't right!" Danny flinches, and Sam knows that's a low blow. But the words keep coming, and Sam doesn't know how to stop them. "But when I wake up, after being betrayed by my parents, having lost two months, and dealing with these magical energies that won't work but make me the target of everyone, and you can't grant _me _a little leeway to lose it? I'm sorry if my identity being shattered and my entire life being a lie isn't as challenging as what you go through!"

"I'm not saying any of that," he mutters quietly.

"Then why aren't you telling me what's going on? Why are you making me guess?"

"I'm not making you guess," he shoots back weakly, his green eyes shimmering with unshed emotions too intense and numerous to identify.

"Oh, grow up, Danny!"

All the tension in his body leaks out in shock. His eyes grow wide, all other emotions giving way to stark surprise. Then, as they both realize what she just said, they slowly turn their heads to see if the team had heard. As soon as they look, the team stops eavesdropping and immediately springs into training, but neither the goth nor the ghost are fooled.

"I'm sorry…"

"You should probably go," Danny says. He turns away.

Sam's anger has abandoned her. Regret crashes down around her. How did she mess this all up? How did she come in here preparing to apologize until he forgave her, only to screw everything up even worse?

Tears fill her eyes, so she turns to go.

She doesn't look behind her, not trusting herself to keep the tears in her eyes.

* * *

The newly-outed Danny returns to the team silently until Sam leaves. Then, he is quick to explain, "My name. Before I died."

No one says anything.

Danny's hands float to his face. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Spoiler asks, her voice soft and sympathetic. "You didn't have to tell us who you were."

"I don't know," he moans into his gloves. How did this go bad so fast? "I don't know, I just am. I'm going to… I have to… Go home."

He turns and makes a beeline for the door, intending to boomtube out of the WatchTower when he was alone in the hallway. Before he can give the command, however, the door slides open and Red Robin slips out with him.

"Robin, please." Please don't interrogate him. Please don't ask him to stay. Please don't ask if he's okay.

He says nothing-only grabs his elbow and carts him along to the next hallway, choosing a door about halfway down and gently guiding him into the dim room. It's lightly colored with neutral furniture. It strikes Danny as similar to a waiting room. Red Robin shuts the door behind him and takes a seat on one of the chairs.

"Please don't…" Danny digs his palms into his eye sockets. "I can't talk about this."

"I didn't ask you anything," he replies in an even voice. "You can talk, if you want, when you want, or you can stay silent. Either way, I want you to calm down."

Danny wants to fight him for the condescending words, but his tone is sincere, as opposed to the stoic flatness that he usually adopts. And he's too tired for it anyway. So he does what Red Robin asks, and collapses on the ground against the wall. But he doesn't immediately calm down, instead starting to shake as a panic attack overwhelms him.

He feels like he's staring down the portal, waiting for the electricity to light his blood on fire. He's standing on a crumbling cliff, feet glued to the ground, waiting to fall to his death. He needs to run, to fight, but there's no danger. He doesn't know what to fight. He doesn't know where to run. So he panics.

Fire is inhaled with every breath, a floodgate bursting out with each exhale. His head pounds with too much blood and his skin stretches taunt, too tight to hold all his innards together. He feels like a balloon twisted until it's bulging against the rubber, moments from exploding. His heart is still. But it feels like a broken clock as Danny desperately fights time.

His arms are forced to his side as two tight cords wrap around his torso and compress him into a smaller space. He fights it, briefly, until his breaths begin to slow and his muscles begin to relax. Exhaustion seizes his body bit by bit, relaxing him into the arms squeezing his torso.

"Better?" Red Robin's voice asks, coming from inches behind him.

Danny doesn't have the energy to ask why the stoic hero decided to hug him. Instead, he just nods.

The two boys lean against the wall side by side, Danny's breath still heavy but now normalized. It's silent, filled only by the sound of breathing, until that too grows quiet.

It feels like hours until Danny says, feeling like it's to himself since he can't even see the other boy: "My name is Danny." His next inhale is shaky, but Red Robin doesn't say anything. So, Danny continues. "I was fourteen when I died."

"You don't have to tell me."

Danny surprises himself by saying anyway, "I was electrocuted."

It's more painful to say out loud than he expects. Anxiety grips his chest, squeezing out his breath, and he mutters, "Maybe that's all on that for now." He chuckles without humor and falls back into silence.

Red Robin doesn't speak at first, but when the unspoken words start to fill the silence between them, and Danny makes no move to break the palpable silence, he decides to prompt him to continue. Not on his death, since the ghost clearly didn't discuss that in more depth. "What happened with Sam?"

"I don't know," he moans, his agitation coming out almost as a whine. "She literally just blew up. I forgave her and told her I needed time but I couldn't explain why so…" His words trail off with a chuckle. "But I guess that's Sam for you."

"Do you forgive her?"

"I mean… yeah. It wasn't her fault."

"Then what are you feeling?"

Danny's silent, staring into the darkness. He doesn't want to say them out loud, but they'd been building up too long, and here was someone willing to listen, someone who had limited knowledge of Sam or Danny or their relationship. So, he allows the words out of their cage. "I trust her with everything. We shared our energies, completely vulnerable to each other. And I was helping hers to separate, and she… she destroyed mine." The following exhale is heavy, burdened. "I literally handed her my heart, and she literally broke it."

"Both those literally's are figurative," Red Robin corrects, and Danny nudges him playfully.

"Whatever. I just didn't know she was capable of betrayal that huge, you know? I didn't know she was capable of hurting me like that, even as angry and frustrated as she was." His voice grows more contemplative. "But I do forgive her. I still love her. I still trust her… Just maybe not with that again. I'm just… readjusting, I guess. How I think about her needs to shift with what she's done. Not as a punishment, or as some kind of revenge, but because the shock was so huge I still haven't come to terms with it. Does that make any sense?"

"Mostly," the other hero reassures. "A core is like your heart, right? Lifeforce?"

"It's the source of my power, yeah. My obsession, too, if modern scientists are to be believed."

"Are all cores balanced like yours? We could possibly use another ghost to help Sam achieve balance."

Danny's shaking his head before the masked hero even finishes. "I'm the only one. Well, probably. The only other _possible _choice is a fruitloop, total maniac."

"Why are you the only one? Besides the possible maniac, that is." Apparently, Red Robin was more interested than Danny than Vlad, for which the teen ghost was grateful.

"I'm not ready to tell you that, I think," he answers, shifting slightly against the ground as a fidget. "It's… personal. But I will say that most ghosts barely remember their lives before, if at all. Me, though, I remember it all. That's why Sam knew my name."

"It's okay if you don't want to talk to me, since I am Batman's partner, and I know that can kind of be a deal-breaker for some. But you need to talk to someone."

Danny contemplates this. He used to talk to Jazz, but she was off at college. Tucker and Sam were always too close to fully understand, not that they weren't lifesavers and his most trusted confidants. Still, he did talk to them. "I have people to talk to."

"About everything?" His question elicits silence from the ghost. "About remembering your life? What you left behind? What about your death itself? I'm betting that's pretty traumatic. And I won't pretend to know all the other things going on in your afterlife, but I do know the months where Sam was missing had to have been tough on you. Then there was the weeks that followed, with her frustration, your induction to the team. And over all of this, I've noticed that you have a lot of anxiety."

Danny doesn't know what to say to this.

"We have a psychologist here. She's helped us all through our own things. I recommend you go to her."

"I don't do therapists." His tone is final, and when he's greeted with silence, he quickly tacks on an explanation. "I had a horrible experience with one once."

"I can vouch for her."

"No offense, but I can't even vouch for _you_. Like you said before, you're Batman's partner. And Batman scares the bejeebees outta me."

Red Robin grins, but it's unseen in the dark. "Tell you what; you agree to meet Canary, I'll keep what you tell me from Batman. Within reason, obviously."

Danny is shocked. "Would you really?"

"Sure. Batman and I don't tell each other everything. We're both pretty private."

"Then… Maybe. Yeah, I'll see her. Once. Just to see if she's going to feed off my misery or not."

Red Robin doesn't press; it's clearly a story for Truth or Dare Night.

"I'll let her know."

They don't say anything for a long time after that. Eventually, Danny is called away by a text on his phone, and they both stand to leave. Red Robin decides to leave the room, since Danny can just boom tube out of there, but before he makes it out the door, he hears his name.

"Yeah?"

Danny smiles. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Phantom."

"You can call me Danny, if you want."

"Okay, Danny."

Both boys leave knowing they'd just made a powerful alliance… Maybe even a friendship, if they let it be.

* * *

**Voila! Chapter 12. Don't worry; Sam and Danny will reconcile. It just might take a hot sec to get there. **

**Read and review for more!**

**Stay Safe Fam**


	13. Chapter 13

"Why did I _do_ that?" Sam bemoans, pacing a line in the floor in front of the bed. Cass sits cross-legged on the bed in front of her, eyes tracking the goth as she moves back and forth. "He didn't _do_ anything! And then I just… Ugh! What is wrong with me?!"

The blond doesn't attempt to interrupt, since the last few times she had Sam had just spiraled off on a tangent. When the goth looks to her for an answer, Cass only points out the obvious: "You're going in circles."

Sam pauses, digging her palms into her eyes, drawing lines in her forehead with her fingernails. "How did it all go so wrong?"

Cass's response is interrupted by a rhythmic knock on the door. Sam shoots Cass a hysterical look and goes back to pacing, leaving the superheroine to open the door. She invites them inside without the goth's permission, resulting in an angry squawk, but no one heeds her.

13, Spoiler and Halo all file in, each in civilian clothes except for Spoiler, who added a sweatshirt and scarf to conceal her identity. Spoiler and 13 collapse on the bed, making themselves at home, but Halo and Cass continue to hover around the bed anxiously, waiting for Sam's response.

"What are they doing here?" she demands, putting up her familiar barrier of anger to mask the rest of her emotions.

"I figured you needed some more support," Cass admits, rubbing her hair with a sheepish smile. "I wasn't helping much."

Sam's eyes flick to each of the heroes. She didn't freak out. Ever. Cass was the only one she trusted in this forsaken Tower, so she was the only logical choice to talk out what happened. But then she went along and invited other people to her emotional breakdown?

"So lay it out for us," Spoiler commands, reclining comfortably on Sam's bed. "Let's hear the damage."

Sam looks at Cass, frustrated, and the blond is quick to answer, "Sam didn't mean to blow up on Phantom. She meant to apologize."

"Oof," 13-Traci, if Sam remembers correctly-winces, her freckled face creased in sympathy.

"If you meant to apologize, where did you get angry?" Halo-Violet-asks, her aura dimming as she settles on the chair beside the bed.

Sam tries to glare at her, but her anger deflates. Violet struck her as one of the most pure and innocent souls she'd ever come into contact with. She doesn't want to get angry at her. "Well, he said he forgave me, but that he couldn't be around me. And I got mad."

"Mad, or scared?" Spoiler prompts.

Sam does shoot her a glare. "I wasn't scared he'd leave me. I don't need him." She huffs, and, at their wary glances, she begins to rant, "Every girl that has a boyfriend turns completely dependent. They lose their personality and become this plaything for their boyfriend. They drop their friends, their family, because who needs other people when you've got a guy? It drives me insane. I'm not afraid Danny will leave me, because I'm not like those other girls. I am perfectly capable without him."

"You're allowed to be afraid to lose him," Violet replies, her face turned down and eyes misting. "Even if you are strong without him, it doesn't mean you want to _be _without him."

"And he's not just your boyfriend," Traci adds, "He's your best friend too, right?"

"Yeah," she allows.

"You're scared that you messed up so bad that it won't be the same," Spoiler concludes, her own expression unreadable.

"No! I didn't mess it up. And if I did, that's on him, because I made _one_ mistake! He has made way more than me, and I've forgiven him every time! I deserve to be forgiven for this once."

"Don't compare your mistakes. I'm not even in a relationship and I know that's a no-go."

Sam glares at Traci.

"But you said he already forgave you," Violet comments in confusion, her face puckered.

"He did, so why does he need space?"

Spoiler sits up, fixing her bright eyes on Sam. "He isn't mad at you, Sam. He's hurt." Sam opens her mouth, then closes it, looking down in shame. "He knows what you've done was a mistake he can't blame you for-and he doesn't. But he probably is just trying to get past the fact that you _can_ make that mistake."

"What do you mean?"

Spoiler looks at Traci, then at Sam, who's wondering about that question herself. "It's reasonable that he wants time. If I had to guess, he's waiting until he's all the way healed. But if he wants the space, you have to give it to him. I think you got angry because you knew that, and that he had every right to ask for that, but you didn't want him to do it anyway."

"That's ridiculous."

Spoiler arched an eyebrow, hiding it in her low-hanging bangs. "Really? Or are you just unwilling to accept the fact that you are the one who messed up? You said he makes the mistakes more often, but this is _your _mistake. You're angry you made it in the first place, and angry that Phantom isn't reacting to it the same way you have." When Sam's face begins contorting in anger, Spoiler is quick to send her a sharp glance. "Don't get mad at me now. Try not to get angry at all. Respond without fighting me."

She deflates. She rubs her face, suddenly exhausted. "I messed up before. But I fixed it. I never had to apologize. I don't know how to fix this."

"You can't," Traci corrects her. "You've got to give it time. You can't keep getting angry."

"I beg to differ," Sam mumbles. "I just wish he would do something wrong! So I could call it even!"

"You're not getting out of this," Cass clucked lightly, wagging her finger at the goth. "You have to face the music."

Sam sends her an odd look, but it soon fades. Defeated, she nods at the girls. "Okay, you're right. I'll give him space."

"Before you make the mistake, don't ignore him either. The space is for him, not you," Spoiler adds, causing Sam to groan in frustration.

"Yeah. Fine. Whatever." She throws her hands up and turns away from them, needing a moment to recollect since they made no move to leave.

"Want to play a card game?" Traci asks, followed by a chorus of agreements from the other girls.

Sam sighs, but turns around and joins them in their circle anyway.

Maybe the space could be good for her, too.

* * *

Danny couldn't help fidgeting in the armchair across from Black Canary. It'd only been a day and a half from his mental breakdown in front of Red Robin, but his nerves were still a mess. His contact with others had been extremely limited-he let Jazz's call go to voicemail, did his chores while his parents were in the lab, and declined Tucker's offer to join him for video games. He didn't need another reason to worry; he had plenty of those already.

Red Robin sprung the session on him after training, leading him to a neutral-colored room where Black Canary was already waiting. For the sake of his pride, Danny didn't argue with the younger hero and accepted his fate head-on… at least until the other boy left. Now, he couldn't meet the other woman's eyes and was failing to stop his fidgeting hands.

"Nervous?" the heroine asks, smiling sympathetically.

Phantom chuckles, one of his hands coming up to rub the back of his neck. "Yeah… I don't have a great history with therapists and all…"

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Not really. "Just a ghost in disguise. Thought she was helping, but really just made things worse."

"I'm sorry. Did that betrayal of trust affect your view on therapists and how you interact with them?"

"I guess. I tried to let her help me, but I ended up feeling pretty terrible."

Black Canary tilts her head, focusing on the ghost in a way that studied him but made him feel important, rather than uncomfortable. "I don't want you to compare that ghost with me and let it affect your judgement of me as a professional. But don't force yourself to trust me. As we talk, you will be able to decide for yourself what to tell me."

Danny lets out a shaky breath. "Alright, sounds reasonable enough. Where do I start?"

Black Canary holds out her arm in an open gesture. "Whatever is on your mind."

"Um…" Danny has a lot on his mind. Sam is mad at him. He's still hurt, so he can't figure out how to make it better. Red Robin probably thinks he's a loser. The whole team probably looks at him different, now that they saw him get hurt _and_ now that they know his name. He decides on a safer topic, something easier to talk about, but still a sore point with him. "I feel like the team thinks I'm a liability."

"How so?" is her immediate response.

"I have a bunch of powers, but I also have a lot of weaknesses. And enemies. And shortcomings. And I feel like they judge me for how poor my fighting style is."

Black Canary's face remains neutral, though she doesn't let Danny attempt to decipher her thoughts and spiral out. "I'm sure coming to work with seasoned heroes must be an adjustment to you." He nods. "It's easy to compare yourself when surrounded by all the talents and skills the members of this team possess, but you have to remember that each one is different. Every hero has strengths and shortcomings. Your fighting style is rough with untrained experience, but ingenious in its own way. No one doubts your position on this team."

"I know that, logically. I mean, my powers are so different, and I know how useful they could be to you guys. But when I'm at training, getting corrected ten times that of anyone else…" Danny shrugs. "I just feel… less. You know?"

Black Canary nods. "It can feel that way. But you're new. Cut yourself some slack." When Danny absorbs this, both agreeing and disagreeing at the same time, the heroine guides the discussion in a new direction. "Are there any attributes you feel you exceed the team in?"

Danny grins. "My intangibility still freaks some of them out. And when I first duplicated and they found out my duplicate was just as tangible as me, their jaws _dropped_!" He continues going on about his interactions with the team, guided by prompts as Canary saw fit. Every once in a while they'd touch on a subject Danny was insecure about, but never for too long. He left the session feeling like several pounds had dropped off his shoulders.

Black Canary is nothing like Spectra.

* * *

Danny was feeling fine the day after his fourth session with Canary-as they'd taken to meeting three times a week as their schedules allowed. It was a Thursday, and there was no training that morning because of a mission the team went on the night that ended only a few minutes after seven. Danny himself had gone on it, and he went right home to pass out on his bed. Later, at noon, Tucker had showed up and they began to play some games.

Canary had been talking to Danny the previous two sessions about triggers and how to identify them. This one was in the form of a small comment, though the trigger behind it was one of the biggest he and the heroine had been able to identify.

"I know she messed up, man, but don't you think you're dragging this on a little too long?"

Danny's fingers freezed on the controls, allowing Tucker's avatar the window of opportunity he was looking for to drive a digital blade through the chest of Danny's avatar. "I'm back to ninety," Danny tells him in a quiet voice. "I'm waiting until I'm back for good."

"Why are you waiting though? It's not like she's gonna do the same thing again." Tucker takes a sip of his drink before getting sidetracked by a ping on his phone. Danny remains silent, hands still on the controller, until Tucker glances back up. "Sorry dude. Gotta head home. My aunt's in town. Shudder." He packs up his bag, unconcerned by Danny's silence. "Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Danny responds, setting down the controller. "See ya then." He grins, but it feels too tight.

He and Tucker wave goodbye and Danny goes up to his room, picking up an unfinished comic book. Even Tucker thought he'd dragged it on too long. He isn't trying to punish Sam! What is he waiting for? Why can't he see her? Is he just being overly emotional?

He discards the comic book; he is way too distracted to focus on it. Traci pings in his chest, a little feeling of pressure in his ribcage distinct from his heartbeat. Danny rubs his chest. Black Canary decided to use MotherBox to her full potential and asked that she study Danny's physiology for changes when he was anxious. Her reasoning was that since MotherBox is intelligent technology, she'll be able to register the physical signs of stress and help pinpoint triggers faster than she and Danny could. She was right, only, if Traci recognized a difference now, it meant he was prone to spiral.

"I need someone to talk to," he said aloud. Jazz in college, Tucker and Sam too opinionated to trust, Red Robin…

Red Robin.

In a flash, he transforms, only wincing slightly at the sharp pain that accompanies the white rings. "The WatchTower," he orders Traci, who responds with a boom tube directly in front of him. Muttering his thanks, he flies through into the observatory deck. He isn't sure how, but Traci recognizes it as his favorite place and automatically sends him there. It's so thoughtful, Danny can hardly believe she's physically a machine.

He heads to the training room, finding only a few senior heroes running drills. He doesn't spot Red Robin. Disappointed, he moves to head to the common rooms, but Nightwing waves at him before he can.

The older hero's hair is damp, and his skin glistens with a faint sheen of sweat. It's clear he's been here for a while, but his breath is slow and even. "Hey. Lookin' for someone?"

"Uh… yeah. Red Robin around?"

Nightwing shakes his head, a slight grin on his face. It was his default setting; while serious during missions, Nightwing is probably one of the friendliest people Danny's ever met, hero or otherwise. "Working a case in Gotham."

"Oh."

Danny's disappointment must be obvious, because Nightwing adds, "Black Canary is here if you need her, though. In her office."

Is he really that transparent? Danny likes to think he has decent control over his facial expressions, but Nightwing just pegged him twice. Some hero he is, if anyone can just read his thoughts off his face. "Thanks."

His smile widens a fraction, and his head dips into a slight nod. "Let me know if she's gone."

Danny pauses at this. "Why?"

"I can tell you need someone to talk to." At Danny's sour expression, he taps the side of his head with a chuckle. "Sorry; trained by Batman. Can't turn it off. But freakish micro-expression abilities aside, all of us have our scars. The job is hard. Just know you're not alone. We're all where you are."

"Even you?" he asks skeptically.

As if to prove Danny's suspicion, the hero's smile doesn't falter, though it does turn sad. "More than most, actually. Never doubt a Bat's ability to hide serious mental tramas."

The statement is tragic, but the smile and sarcastic spin on the words cause Danny to chuckle. "I'll keep that in mind," he promises him. Then Nightwing goes back to training and allows the other hero to head over to Black Canary's office.

He knocks on the wood, suddenly nervous. What if he was with another hero? If Nightwing is to be believed, which Danny is fairly sure about, then he was just one of the many that rotated through Canary's care.

But now is apparently a free spot for Canary, because when she opens up the door, she's alone in the room. "Phantom," she greets in a warm voice. "Come on in." She steps back to allow him inside, and he immediately heads to his preferred chair to get comfortable. Canary joins him behind her desk, smiling kindly as she settles into her own chair. "What can I help you with?"

"You said last week that anything I said stayed in this room. Is that true? For everything?"

"Everything you say is confidential. The only exception is if it could harm others."

Danny searches her gaze and finds nothing but sincerity. But should he trust her? It's so much easier to keep his secrets close than to risk someone exploiting them. And to be honest, he'd never told anyone before. Tucker and Sam were with him. Vlad and Jazz found out on their own. Dani was created from him. He'd never uttered the words out loud.

Canary watches his scrutiny with her usual open expression. "I don't want you to feel pressured to confide in me. Let it come naturally as you feel comfortable."

Danny shakes his head at her suggestion. "No, I do want to. I _need_ to. I've never…" His voice breaks as it hits him. He's never talked it all out. He trusts Jazz with everything, but he tends to avoid deep topics so she won't over-analyze him. She means well, but she can screw with his life when she's trying to help him. And Tucker and Sam were _there_. He didn't need to explain.

At this realization, the weight on his shoulders doubles. He swallows and takes three deep breaths. "I need to tell you. I need to tell _someone_." Maybe, if someone knew what's going on, they could help him figure out how to fix it. If someone knew how Sam had hurt him, _understood_ what the implications were, maybe they would have better advice than "get over it." He couldn't get over it. He didn't know how.

"Then whenever you're ready," she invites. "Start wherever you're comfortable, and let yourself transition."

Danny steadies himself. Start comfortable? He can start on neutral ground, but that's closest he can get. "You heard my name is Danny, right?"

She nods.

He shuffles, a desperate urge to fidget spreading into his arms and legs. He folds his legs and clasps his hands together to keep both still. "Most ghosts don't remember their names. A lot don't even have them in the first place. The only things they can really remember are their deaths, and sometimes not even that." He shifts his hands so they're interlocked instead of wrapped, then curses himself for succumbing to his fidget urges. "But I remember everything."

"Why hide your name?"

"Well, I mean. I'm a hero. It'd be kind of weird if I was the ghost hero Danny."

Canary chuckles and amends, "From others. Is it a painful past?"

Danny thinks it a bit odd that she asks for a traumatic past, but he supposes it must be pretty common in this line of work and lets it go. "A bit, yeah… But… it's really more of a painful… present."

There. He said it. There is no going back now. Or, maybe there is, but he's halfway in, so he might as well finish it out. Canary tilts her head in confusion but doesn't interrupt as Danny works up the words to explain. "My name _is _Danny. I'm sixteen. I died when I was fourteen, two years ago."

The heroine takes in the information with a nod, and when Danny struggles more, she prompts him. "Do you know people from when you were alive?"

"All of them," he confirms. At this, Canary's eyes widen a fraction.

"Do they know who you are?"

"Only Sam, my friend Tucker, and… Jazz." He hesitates here. Was it really wise to just throw words like "sister" around?

Canary makes this decision for him. "Who is Jazz?"

Inhale. Exhale. "My sister." Canary leans back.

Mouth now unhinged, Danny's story comes pouring out, from the beginning. "My parents are ghost hunters-scientists, really. They spend all their free time in the lab in our basement, making ghost weapons and devices and stuff like that. Jazz and I both just kind of ignored them. Ghosts didn't exist, you know? Our parents were crazy. But then they spent all this time on a ghost portal, and when my friends found out about it they really wanted to check it out. Only problem was that my parents spent literally every waking hour down there, and I didn't even want to see it, so it's not like I tried very hard.

"A couple months later, my parents finished it, but it didn't work. They took a break from the lab, and Sam dragged us all down there to see. She likes photography, scrapbooking sometimes, so she brought her camera with her. When she found out I had my own jumpsuit, she really wanted to take a picture of me in it by the portal. I did it, cuz, you know. Sam." He chuckles nervously, but doesn't meet Canary's gaze just yet. He can't; not until he tells her exactly what he is. "In the portal, though, I tripped, because it was dark, and my hand was on the wall so I tried to catch myself and…" He exhales, shaky. "My parents did build a working portal. But they mixed up where the on button was supposed to go, and it ended up inside. And I pressed it."

He swallows, trying to ignore the memories floating up. The smell of singed skin. The fireworks exploding in front of his eyes. That awful metallic taste underneath his tongue... The fire in his blood. "And I woke up like this." Now too anxious to sit, Danny leaps from his seat and begins to pace. "Except, I was only awake long enough to realize what had happened, and then I passed out again, and when I woke up the next time, I was completely normal. I thought I hallucinated the whole thing. But then these weird things started happening. I woke up on the living room floor. I dropped _everything_, no matter how careful I tried to be. There were these random instances where no one could see me! I could see myself, but everyone just looked around when I spoke like they didn't know who was talking. And then there was this one time I was in the shower, and I fell through the floor, but I couldn't stop it and I ended up on the lab floor and then my parents were wondering why on earth I was streaking through the lab!"

He tosses his hands up in the air, exasperated, but then the memory catches up to him. "Wait. They didn't even ask." He laughs to himself. "They just gave me a fifteen minute lecture on lab safety while I stood there dripping wet." Then he sobers and jabs a finger at Canary. "But that was still humiliating!"

"Phantom," Canary interrupts, holding up a hand. When he doesn't look at her immediately, she stresses, "_Danny_." His head turns to look at her. "Are you saying that you're still alive?"

He nods vigorously. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Except I'm also dead." At her furrowed expression, he quickly adds, "That's why I could help Sam balance. Chaos and order are opposites, just like Life and Death. I'm both. I'm an impossibility. I was trying to teach her balance."

"Hold on," Canary interjects again, when it looks like Danny's about to go off on another tangent. "You said you woke up and looked normal. So you have two forms?"

This makes Danny grin. She looks so confused, but fascinated, eyes wider than usual and sitting erect in her chair. There's no malice or disgust. She's just… surprised.

So he has no qualms about transforming. In a flash of two rings, his normal clothes are back, his white hair has turned black, and he can feel the absence of his ghostly vision returning to normal.

He smirks. "Danny Fenton, halfa extraordinaire." Danny bends a little at the waist for a mock bow. "Do you understand me now?"

* * *

**You guys are so amazing. Seriously. Beyond the reviews, which were epic enough, I also had someone create a tv trope for this story. When I found it, I also looked up my other stories, and found that Adventures of a Screwed Up Clone _also_ had one! That blew me away! You guys are way too nice to me. **

**Anyway, this is the final mushy gushy angsty chapter. Next chapter, we're getting down to content and some action. I mean, what's the point of Sam having powers if she can't use them?**

**R and R, fam, see you next chapter.**


	14. Chapter 14

"Where is she?"

The voice thunders through the cavernous room, shaking the ground and dislodging bits of rock and dirt from the ceiling. Despite the rage quaking in his voice, the smaller demon remains unchanged, inspecting his thorn fingernails as if for grime. He's covered in it, of course, but makes no more to dislodge it from his cuticles. "I probably shouldn't tell you," he muses in a high, pre-pubescent voice.

"_Boy_," rages the entity. Fire erupts in hues of black and red, sucking greedily at the air as the rage fulls it higher. Teekl hisses at it and bounds back to her master, curling around his feet. He pats her on the head obligingly, not concerned about the flames as his cat is.

"I'm more than that," Klarion taunts, teeth flashing in the dim light. "I'm chaos personified. And if you want to be reassembled, you'll do what I say!" He dissolves into cackles, delighted at the receding flames.

"Where is the girl?" he reiterates, voice quiet but no less violent.

"With the heroes. They're getting farther with her than we ever did." He says it casually, because it doesn't matter to him. Freeing this demon went against Order and Chaos alike, but Savage wanted him. He thought he could talk sense into the beast. Ha! How amusing it would be to watch him try! "We decided to leave her there. Until they figured out how to make her work."

"How much longer will I waste here?"

Klarion raises an unconcerned eyebrow. "What's wrong? A hundred thousand years too much for you?"

The fire dances closer, longing to burn up the demon like dried kindle, but it can't breach his aura. It's not nearly powerful enough. Not yet. "You are young. You do not even comprehend how long I have been incarcerated, torn."

"Do you really think so? My anti-aging cream must be working."

The cavern rumbles with anger. "I have forgotten how pointless it is, to explain anything to an Agent of Chaos."

"I'm more cooperative than Order," he replies noncommittally. "But that's not what I'm here for. We're ready to find your next piece. If you want us to, that is."

The monster grits its teeth and rattles the whole cavern with its force, but when it's voice returns, it is noticeably controlled. "My next piece will be found in the candelabra of Jason Blood's library."

When he doesn't continue, Klarion rolls his eyes and taps his fingers on his arm. "And… how will we know what candelabra?"

"The gemstone in the center," the monster clips out in barely-contained fury. He despises the agents of Chaos. Of course, he despises the agents of Order, too, and the unfortunate fact was that Chaos tended to be the lesser of two irritations. When freed, they would all suffer alike. He merely needs to exercise patience.

"Thanks, Tezzy. We'll be back before you know we're gone!"

"That is not my name," he growls in response, but the agent of Chaos is already summoning a portal, completely ignoring the far older and more powerful entity. He steps through without a hint of concern, completely at ease. The demon swore he would destroy that spirit himself. When Klarion is gone, he says to the empty cavern, "My name is _**Tezcatlipoca**_."

And for the first time in millenia, the name sends ripples of power into the universe.

* * *

When Zatanna brings Sam to the main training room, she's already surprised to be back. When she sees Danny waiting for them, legs crossed and meditating, she almost believes she's still asleep. Her shock is legendary, and the look on her face makes Danny (who had apparently been peeking) smirk.

"Hey," he greets as she approaches, unraveling his legs from his meditation pose and stretching them out in the empty air underneath him.

Sam blinks. Shakes her head. "Hi?" She can't help being suspicious. Was it not literally nine days ago that she'd agreed to give him space? She hadn't seen him since and he's now, what? Over it?

"I'm here to help teach you balance," he elaborates, still flaunting that half-cocky, half-genuine smirk.

Sam narrows her eyes, now sure that something suspicious is going on. "Because that worked out so well last time?"

He shrugs, so casual the urge to smack him overwhelms Sam, then gestures for her to sit in front of him. "We're not going to mess with energies. I'm just going to talk you through it."

"Oh." She glances down at the spot he offered her. "Okay." She drops to the ground, twisting her feet in her preferred form. She glances to Zatanna, who'd moved several yards away and was now cracking open a book.

"I'm just here for supervision," she calls back in answer to the unspoken question. She's far away enough that she can't hear them clearly. "There's nothing I can do to help anyway. Besides, Phantom asked for privacy." To prove this, she holds up a pair of earbuds from her relaxed position and pops them into her ears.

Sam nods in response, then turns back to Danny, who has settled a good distance away from her in his own pose. "So… Are we… like, good now?"

Danny fixes her with his intense gaze, and Sam forces herself to hold her ground. He's searching her eyes as she's searching his, but he's the only one who gets any information. "We're getting there," he answers at last. "We can talk about it later, though. Right now, I want to see if I can help you."

She bounces her head in a nod she curses herself for being too enthusiastic with, and at his gesture, closes her eyes.

"Your balance is broken. I learned how to achieve balance from wreckage these past few weeks, and now I'll teach you the same." Guilt rushes through Sam at the reminder, but Danny is quick to add, "I'm not trying to take a hit at you, I'm just explaining that now I actually know how to settle two conflicting energies."

She releases a breath, clearing up some of the sticky guilt in her blood, but it still lingers, albeit faint enough for her to ignore for the time being.

"Like two magnets, they repel each other. You can't try to force them to work together, or they're going to spring right back apart. Instead, you have to turn one of them around, let it be drawn to the other one."

"I don't understand."

"I'm getting there, don't worry." She hears him shift on the ground. "I'm not both at the same time. I'm one or the other. A human _or_ a ghost."

"But when you're human, you have some of your ghost powers," she points out.

"Yes, and when I'm a ghost, I still have the emotion regulation of a human. The goal is to relent one energy so the other one can come forward. But, because this other energy is still inside of you, there will be certain abilities that still bleed through."

"So how do I flip one of the energies?"

"Focus on one. Don't force the other one away, but let it fade to the back of your consciousness. Let them separate-but let the power behind one fuel the other. You have to teach them to trade-off."

Sam huffs. "I can't just tell them to. It doesn't work like that."

He chuckles in response. "Let's focus on Chaos first. It's your more natural state." She pries open one eye and glares at him. He already has his open, and he chuckles at her look. "Shut your eyes," he commands. When she complies, he goes on, voice back to the contemplative tone he'd taken earlier. "Focus on Chaos. It's in you. Remember the feeling of our connection? The separation you felt? Even for a brief moment?"

Sam nods. She focuses on the visceral energy inside her, the one built of rage and emotion and reaction. The darker parts of her. The angrier parts.

"Bring that energy up. To the forefront of your mind. It'll move, so just let it go wherever it wants."

She does so. The pressure builds in her head, a storm, sending lava into her veins. Immediately, she feels the vein of chill that reacts, turning the fire to dust, cancelling the energies out. The storm settles. Sam groans and rubs her eyes with her fists.

"I lost it," she tells Danny in defeat.

"You were supposed to. So you know how the resistance works. Explain it to me."

She feels the phantom heat under her skin and shivers at the absence of it. "Like a whirlwind in my head, of fire, and there was lava in my bloodstream. Then it cooled. Like a river cut through it, and the lava hardened."

"Where did the heat go?"

"What do you mean? It cooled with the rock."

Danny met her gaze, green eyes shining. "Just because it turned hard, doesn't mean it lost the heat. Let's try it again. Don't try to separate the water. But don't let it harden either."

"How am I supposed to do that?" she asks, skeptical.

He grins. "Let it steam instead."

She blinks. She's not sure Danny knows what the crap he's doing, but when he orders her eyes closed again, she does so. He walks her through the same steps, until they reach the same moment as before. The lava is hot in her skin, almost painful in its intensity, and a sliver of cool begins to trickle through it.

_Steam_, she thought. _Water and heat becomes steam._ The lava began to cool, but she did feel the steam. She felt the product of the two clashing together, and heard Danny's delighted exclamation.

Her eyes flew open. "Did it work?!"

Danny's smile is huge, his lips split to allow his teeth to shine through. "Your left bracelet glowed bright red! It's got to mean something! Did you feel anything?"

Sam's words trip over themselves as she rushes to explain how the steam came off for a split moment before the lava cooled.

"It must be different than mine," he muses, leaning forward to eye her bracelets. "Mine doesn't create anything by clashing. Maybe your clash is what makes the release possible. Like, shaking energy free."

She shrugs. "Can we do it again?"

He nods.

For the next several hours, they continued to try again and again, each with better results. Eventually, Zatanna placed a candle in front of her to try igniting, which she did on hour four. She leapt to her feet, shouting and laughing, pointing at the candle and jumping, more excited than she'd been in a long time. The only dampener for her discovery was when she went to give Danny a big hug, and he sidled away, still grinning but a certain wariness in his eyes.

She was still too excited to be put off, however, and demanded they go again.

Zatanna stopped them less than an hour later, herself tired from the session, despite doing nothing but jamming to music and reading.

Danny was secretly grateful. He was starting to get exhausted himself.

Sam relented to the two and thanked them both profusely before darting off to share the good news with her new group of friends.

Danny and Zatanna shared a tired smile, waved each other good-bye, and went their separate ways.

* * *

Danny trained with her on Thursday mornings, but today was their last time. School was starting, and Phantom had explained to the team that school brought hosts of ghost attacks in the mornings. Luckily, since the rest of the team had to switch training to later in the day anyway, no one questioned him too hard on the flimsy reasoning.

As put-off as this made Sam - she'd be homeschooling with a couple other members that couldn't attend normal school safely - she tried to avoid being bitter about it to the friends that would be leaving her behind. Instead, she simply looked forward to having extra time to practice her new ability to harness enough Chaos and Order magic to do a couple simple spells for each.

Chaos had been a piece of cake compared to Order. She and Danny started with Chaos to put her in the mindset, and so she could run through the three spells she was now capable of: setting candles on fire, flipping book pages, and lighting up her left hand. Zatanna explained that this last spell would eventually enable the goth to draw symbols in the air, but for now she could only maintain the light on her skin.

When done with those spells, they would focus on Order. It was harder for her - instead of emotion, it lay in the thought before action, the logic before decision, and the structure behind the function. It was less instinctual and lay more in her logical mind. It was easier to let the heat find release through the cold than for the cold to be bolstered by the heat. Steam always resulted in Chaos. They were still trying to find an alternative.

She arrives at the training room at ten sharp, but Danny is not floating in his traditional lotus pose. This is annoying but sadly, not out of character for the teenage ghost. With a yawn, Sam plops down on the ground and assumes her normal position, waiting for Danny.

Sam finds it ridiculously harder to separate her energies and gives up after only a few tries. Thankfully, Danny shows up only a couple minutes later, hair a disaster and shadows under his eyes. She had been planning to chew him out, but her reprimand dies on her tongue when she sees him; he looks exhausted. Rubbing his fists into his eyes, he floats in her general area.

"Oversleep?" she teases.

"Didn't," he responds, a yawn pulling open his mouth. Sam follows suit, then blinks back the water in her eyes.

"Why not?"

"Out with the team all night. One of their 'mystic acquaintances'" - he bends his first two fingers on each hand mockingly - "was attacked and we went to help. It dragged on _forever_, _and _the guy got away! We have to add magic to my list of weaknesses."

"Do you want to move training to another time?"

"Nah, ten minutes and I'll be wide awake. I slept til eleven, and even so, it's not my first all-nighter. I can tough this out." He collapses on the ground in a sloppy version of his preferred mediation form, leaning his head side to side to crack his neck. "Where are we?"

Sam's not sure what possesses her to say it, but suddenly it's coming out of her mouth: "I was actually hoping to ask you that same question."

Danny blinks. "But… Isn't it the same…?"

Sam rolls her eyes. "About _us_."

He rubs his eyes one more time, and when he pulls his hands away, his gaze is slightly more focused. "Oh, you mean… A relationship talk?"

Sam nods and smoothes her hands out on her pants.

Danny's hand ruffles his hair, then gives a heavy sigh. "I knew this was coming, but geez, I did not prepare for this so early in the morning."

"It's ten-thirty."

His returning glare is half-hearted. "It's early for an almost-all-nighter."

She has to agree with that.

"But yeah, we can no problem, but can we do it tomorrow instead? I'm like…" He swirls his fingers around his head. "Nine different ways out of it right now."

Sam smirks, then adopts a more serious expression. "Can I just ask… Are we going to break up?"

Danny pauses mid-yawn, peering at her over the hand he'd lifted to cover his mouth. Then he rolls his eyes. "You know, if the answer were yes, there's no way I'd end up leaving here without the conversation, sleep-deprived or no."

Hope exploded in her chest, releasing the muscles she'd braced when expecting a no. "So we aren't?"

Danny waves her off in that playfully dismissive way he does sometimes when trying to make light of a serious topic. "Not planning on it. You are _way _hotter than I am."

Sam laughs out loud.

"Shall we work on this thing now?"

Sam nods, lighter than she'd been since before she'd broken his core. He still doesn't take her hand, but, hey. He's still here, and that's way more than she deserves.

* * *

Sam's gait is considerably cheerier when she walks down the hallway to the training room. She and Danny agreed to meet an hour earlier than training usually was, since the room would be empty, and run through a couple drills before going back to Sam's room to talk. Their training was obscenely unproductive the day before; they'd ended up babbling about random topics and going on random tangents for the entire three hours they had planned. So, they figured it'd be smart to at least stretch Sam's magical muscles to keep them developing.

Training had been cancelled that day, since so many members of the team had back-to-school parties, new student orientations, and school shopping. Still, Sam and Danny wanted to be alone for the morning - at least, that's what Sam wanted. She and Danny were finally going to talk… and then, maybe, things could go back to the way they were.

"Hey, Sam!"

Sam half-turns to greet Cass, who flies up to her and drops to her feet.

"Don't you have an orientation or something?"

Cass smiles. "Later this afternoon. You headed to the training room?"

Sam raises her eyebrows at her friend. "Yeah…"

"I ran into Phantom in the mess hall. He said he's grabbing a bite to eat since he skipped breakfast. And anyway, I've been looking for Robin _everywhere_ since yesterday _morning_ so I figured he might be here."

"So he's still avoiding you." They'd had a pretty nasty right before the mission the night before, and Cass had been looking for Robin ever since. She'd been going a little nuts, in Sam's opinion, especially since it was Red Robin's fault and _he_ should be looking for _her_. "Why would he be in this training room? It's kind of communal."

"Good point…" she groans. "And I checked there last night." She looks forlorn, but then her eyes light up, and she turns to Sam with a grin. "Wait, Spoiler has a room here, right?"

"I'm pretty sure you all do…"

She snatches up Sam's hand. "They're both Bats, and I haven't seen her since our fight either. Maybe he's crying to her!"

Cass had privately complained to Sam about Spoiler and Red Robin's close friendship, sometimes even going so far as to say they act more like a couple than him and Cass. "Didn't you check her house already?"

"You make me sound like a stalker." Cass's frown is almost a pout, and Sam grins, shouldering her hard.

"You _are_ a stalker."

"Whatever. You with me or not?"

"With." Danny is getting breakfast anyway, and Sam sympathizes with her slightly-obsessive friend. Red Robin was being a real jerk, hiding away after Cass called him out on lying to her about where he'd been. And if Sam was being honest, Spoiler and Red Robin _did_ spend a bit more time together than strictly necessary. Not that Sam had any issue with people in relationships hanging out with friends of the opposite sex, but he'd ditched her three separate times and was later seen to be doing things with Spoiler.

They chatter on their way to Spoiler's room, and when they reach it, they see the door locked. Not just one level, either. Triple-encrypted.

"Oh, he's most definitely in there," Cass snaps, her mood doing a 180. "And triple-encrypted? He knows I'm looking for him. The jerk." She goes to knock, but Sam holds out her hand. "What?"

"I've got… I don't know. A weird feeling." Cass's eyes grow wide with apprehension. "No, not a danger kind of weird. Just a… weird kind of weird. Why did he triple-encrypt _Spoiler's_ door lock?"

Cass shrugs. "Because he doesn't want me to find him?"

Sam shakes her head. "Can you get Phantom for me?" At Cass's confused look, Sam rolls her eyes and lightly pushes her in the direction of the cafeteria. "He's a ghost, Cass. He can just pop his head in."

"Now who's the stalker?" But she smiles and goes on her way.

Sam frowns at the door. What a weird feeling. Like pop rocks in her stomach. Small little bursts of fireworks on the inner layer, almost tickling but not quite. She puts her hands on her stomach and the red glow of her left bracelet catches her eye.

"I'm not… using any magic," she murmurs to herself, fingering the bright red runes.

"Hey, Sam," Danny greets, and Sam's attention snaps to the two flying heroes as they land in front of her. "Cass said I'm helping you guys stalk someone?"

"I told him it was your idea," Cass adds. "So technically, you're the stalker here."

"Technically," Danny corrects, grinning, "I'm the one being the stalker."

"You're our proxy, so it's not as bad." Sam grins impishly at him, which he returns. "We won't even tell you who's room it is. Plausible deniability."

"Well, Cass already told me it's Spoiler's…"

Sam glares at her. "Fine," she says slowly, "But keep in mind Red Robin's in there, so it's not like she's gonna be getting dressed or anything." Her pop rocks sparkles, almost like laughter, and Sam glances down, uncomfortable.

"Whatever…" Danny groans, though in good humor. "I'm on it."

His form shimmers, and Sam knows he's gone intangible. It's a slight difference, but she's seen it enough times to recognize it. "Wait," she hisses, just as he's about to poke his head in. "You're just gonna go on in all… visible?"

Danny rolls his eyes. "Right, I forgot. I'm supposed to be sneaky." He blinks out of existence.

"You have a wicked cool boyfriend," Cass tells Sam, and they hear Danny's slight chuckle at her comment.

Sam just grins at Cass.

Seconds later, Danny pops back into existence in front of them, his green eyes so wide they dominate his face, his mouth open.

Cass's cheerfulness is gone in an instant. "What?" she demands.

He looks at her. Then he shakes - a full body-tremor that wracks every limb. "I-" He swallows, then shakes his head vigorously. "I-" He focuses on Cass. "I'm sorry," he mutters, horrified.

"What happened?" Sam asks, but Cass doesn't appear to care. She marches right up to the door and bangs on it so hard it leaves dents.

"I've seen some things…" he whispers out the side of his mouth, holding his hands in front of his face.

"Like?" she presses, patience thinning as her friend loses it on the door in front of them.

"Can we just leave it at… 'Way more than just their faces?'"

The pop rocks celebrate in her stomach. Her bracelet flashes once. Her hands come up to her mouth with the first reaction - horror - and then fall to her sides in clenched fists as the second - anger - takes over her. "You should probably go," she tells him. "You're not going to want to be here for this."

"I swear, if you do not _open this door this instant,_ I will tear it off its hinges!" Cass roars at the door.

"And you do?"

"No. I need to be here for this. But Red Robin's your friend, so for the sake of plausible deniability, you should go." Sam lays a hand on his shoulder, and for once, he lets her. "Trust me," she promises softly. "You don't want to be here for this."

"What about our talk?"

She gives him what she hopes is a reassuring smile. "We'll reschedule for tomorrow."

He nods, glances at Cass, and covers Sam's hand with his own to show his support. Then, without another word, he flies off down the hall.

A few moments later, Spoiler opens the door, hair wet, in full uniform. "Hey, Cass. Sorry, I was in the shower. What's up?"

Cass's whole body is red with rage, and she shoves past the purple girl, flying into the room. "Tim!" she screams. "I _know _you are in here, and I know what you two were _doing_, so if you don't get your cowardly, lying-" She devolves into some high quality swearing, ignoring Spoiler's attempts to calm her down.

Sam is grim as she watches the scene unfold in front of her. Now it is painfully obvious what the pop rocks in her stomach were doing before. They sensed chaos brewing, just under the surface. All that was needed was a catalyst.

Does it make her a bad person, if Sam doesn't regret being that catalyst?

* * *

**Hey bois and grils, another little chapter for y'all to chew on. I introduced the main antagonist (finally, amiright) and Sam's magic will continue to develop a huge amount in the next chapter. Thank you for your reviews! I'm lovin' them. **

**I know I didn't add a lot of build-up with the whole Red-Robin-cheating-on-Cass-with-Stephanie, but I wanted it to be as much of a shock to the characters as the audience. Tim has been known to be a tad too casual with his relationships, and I have always shipped him more with Spoiler than Wondergirl, even if I know this is a horrible way to go about it. Let me know your thoughts!**


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